Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi

Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi

Silvia Alejandra Fernández de Gurmendi (born October 24, 1954 ) is an Argentine lawyer . From January 20, 2010 to March 10, 2018, she was a judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague and also its President from March 11, 2015 to March 11, 2018.

Life

Fernández de Gurmendi studied law at the universities of Córdoba and Limoges . She then did her doctorate at the Universidad de Buenos Aires . From 1987 to 1988 she attended the Argentine Diplomatic Academy and graduated cum laude .

In 1989 Fernández de Gurmendi joined the diplomatic service in her home country. She worked in the legal department of the Argentine Foreign Ministry until 1994 and was then legal advisor to the Permanent Mission of Argentina to the United Nations until 2000. In this function, she represented Argentina before the Legal Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations and was involved in negotiations on numerous questions of international humanitarian law and international criminal law. The focus of her work was on the negotiations for the establishment of the International Criminal Court. From 1995 to 1998 she was Chair of the Working Group on Criminal Procedure Law, in 1995 also Deputy Chair of the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, from 1996 to 1998 Deputy Chair of the United Nations Preparatory Committee for the International Criminal Court and in 1998 Deputy Chairperson of the Main Committee during the State Conference in Rome.

In the period from 2000 to 2003 she held various functions. Among other things, she worked as Deputy Director General for Human Rights in the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as an advisor to the Ministry of Justice and as chair of the international expert group on mercenary affairs convened by the UNHCHR .

In 2003, Fernández de Gurmendi started working for the Prosecution of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. As head of the Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division (JCCD), her responsibilities included the preparatory analysis of cases and international cooperation and legal assistance.

In 2006 she was appointed Director General for Human Rights in the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this function, she represented her home country to international and regional human rights organizations, as well as to the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights .

On November 18, 2009, Fernández de Gurmendi was elected Judge to the International Criminal Court by the Assembly of the Contracting Parties to the Rome Statute. In accordance with the requirements of the Rome Statute for the qualification of candidates in the field of criminal and criminal procedural law (list of candidates A) or international law (list of candidates B), she stood as a candidate on list A. The election had become a by-election after the Guyanese lawyer Mohamed Shahabuddeen resigned for personal reasons before he took office in January 2009. Fernández de Gurmendi competed against Cecilia Medina Quiroga from Chile , Marco Gerardo Monroy Cabra from Colombia and Duke EE Pollard from Guyana. It was not until the sixth round of voting that she was able to prevail against Pollard with 62 to 26 votes. The election of a Guyanese lawyer for the resigned Shahabuddeen had been supported by several states. On January 20, 2010, Fernández de Gurmendi was appointed Judge at the International Criminal Court for a remaining term of eight years and two months. She belonged to the pre-litigation department. On March 11, 2015, she was elected President of the International Criminal Court for a term of three years until 2018. On March 10, 2018, she resigned from the college of judges according to schedule.

Fernández de Gurmendi taught international criminal law at the universities in Buenos Aires and Palermo .

Publications (selection)

• With Håkan Friman: The rules of procedure and evidence and the regulations of the court . In: Jose Doria (ed.): The legal regime of the International Criminal Court: essays in honor of Professor Igor Blishchenko; in memoriam Professor Igor Pavlovich Blishchenko (1930-2000) . Nijhoff, Leiden 2009, ISBN 978-90-04-16308-9 , pp. 797-824.
• An insider's view . In: Mauro Politi (ed.): The international criminal court and the crime of aggression . Aldershot, Ashgate 2004, ISBN 0-7546-2362-9 , p. 175 ff.
• With Håkan Friman: The rules of procedure and evidence of the International Criminal Court . In: TMC Asser Instituut, Institute for Private and Public International Law, International Commercial Arbitration and European Law: Yearbook of international humanitarian law . Vol. 3, 2000, ISSN  1389-1359 , pp. 289-336.

Web links

• Short biography on the homepage of the ICC ( Memento of October 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English, French)
• Curriculum Vitae (English; PDF; 80 kB)
• Statement of qualifications (English; PDF; 47 kB)
• Note verbals from the Argentine embassy in the Netherlands (English; PDF; 47 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Judge Fernández de Gurmendi elected ICC President for 2015-2018. March 11, 2015, accessed March 11, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Alejandro Rebossio: Una argentina, presidenta del Tribunal Penal Internacional. Fernández de Gurmendi dirigirá la corte que analiza casos de Colombia y Honduras . In: El País , March 13, 2015.
3. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Last accessed: November 9, 2011. 
4. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from March 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Last accessed: November 9, 2011.