Elizabeth Odio Benito

Elizabeth Odio Benito

Elizabeth Odio Benito (born September 15, 1939 in Puntarenas ) is a lawyer from Costa Rica . She served as minister in her home country several times, and from 1998 to 2002 as vice-president. In addition, she worked as a judge at the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia from 1993 to 1998 , and from 2003 to 2012 she was a member of the International Criminal Court .

Life

Elizabeth Odio Benito was born in Puntarenas in 1949 and graduated from the Universidad de Costa Rica with a degree in law in 1964 , where she then worked as a lecturer and from 1986 as a professor. She has also taught as a visiting professor at various universities in Europe and the USA . From 1978 to 1982 and from 1990 to 1994 she served as Minister of Justice and from 1998 to 2002 as Vice-President and Environment and Energy Minister of her home country. As Minister of Justice, she represented the government of her home country in the so-called Gallardo case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights .

From 1993 to 1998 she worked as a judge and sole representative of Latin America at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, including from 1993 to 1995 as Vice-President of the court. From 2003 to 2012 she was a judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague , where she was a member of the Main Proceedings Department and from 2003 to 2006 she served as the second vice-president. She was nominated by the government of Panama on the list A for candidates with proven competence in the field of criminal law and criminal procedure law . She has been a judge at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights since 2016, and her term of office ends in 2021.

Since 2000 she has also been a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration . The St. Edward's University in Austin gave Elizabeth Odio Benito in May 2004 an honorary doctorate in recognition of their commitment to the peace , the human rights and international law .

literature

• Elizabeth Odio Benito (September 15, 1939−). In: Cynthia Tompkins, David William Foster: Notable Twentieth-Century Latin American Women: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport 2001, ISBN 0-31-331112-9 , pp. 213-217
• Odio Benito, Elizabeth (Costa Rica). In: Election of the Judges of the International Criminal Court. Addendum: Alphabetical List of Candidates (with Statements of Qualifications). Document no. ICC-ASP / 1/4 / Add.1. Edited by the Assembly of the Parties to the International Criminal Court, 2002, pp. 190–196

Web links

• International Criminal Court: Judge Elizabeth Odio Benito (Costa Rica) ( Memento from October 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English, with picture)