{"id":153100,"date":"2025-11-14T19:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T19:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/un-elects-phoebe-okowa-to-international-court-of-justice"},"modified":"2025-11-14T20:08:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T20:08:04","slug":"un-elects-phoebe-okowa-to-international-court-of-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/un-elects-phoebe-okowa-to-international-court-of-justice","title":{"rendered":"UN Elects Phoebe Okowa to International Court of Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Kenya. <\/strong><\/span>In a historic vote at the United Nations on Thursday, Kenyan law professor Phoebe Okowa was elected as a judge to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), emerging victorious from a competitive field of African candidates after a series of tense voting rounds in both the General Assembly and Security Council.<\/b><\/p>\n

The election saw Okowa compete against candidates from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Ghana in what became a protracted contest.<\/p>\n

After several inconclusive rounds that failed to produce the required majority in both UN organs, candidates Paul Kuruk of Ghana and Dr. Olufemi Elias of Nigeria withdrew their candidacies.<\/p>\n

The final round pitted Okowa against Charles Jalloh of Sierra Leone, with the Kenyan candidate securing 106 votes to Jalloh’s 79 in the General Assembly and a narrow 8-7 victory in the Security Council.<\/p>\n

Term and significance of appointment<\/b><\/p>\n

General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock officially declared that “Phoebe Okowa of Kenya has obtained an absolute majority in both organs” and was therefore newly elected.<\/p>\n

Okowa succeeds Judge Abdulqawi A. Yusuf, who resigned effective September 30, 2025.<\/p>\n

Her term begins immediately and will run through February 5, 2027, completing the remainder of her predecessor’s term on the UN’s principal judicial organ, often called the “World Court.”<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Kenya<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Kenya. In a historic vote at the United Nations on Thursday, Kenyan law professor Phoebe Okowa was elected as a judge to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), emerging victorious from a competitive field of African candidates after a series of tense voting rounds in both the General Assembly and Security Council. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":153099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12,7204],"tags":[4410,9408,544,14687,4240,212,8932],"class_list":["post-153100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","category-to-homepage","tag-elections","tag-international-court-of-justice","tag-kenya","tag-the-hague","tag-un-security-council","tag-united-nations","tag-united-nations-general-assembly"],"yoast_head":"\nUN Elects Phoebe Okowa to International Court of Justice - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a historic vote at the United Nations on Thursday, Kenyan law professor Phoebe Okowa was elected as a judge to the ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/un-elects-phoebe-okowa-to-international-court-of-justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UN Elects Phoebe Okowa to International Court of Justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a historic vote at the United Nations on Thursday, Kenyan law professor Phoebe Okowa was elected as a judge to the ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/un-elects-phoebe-okowa-to-international-court-of-justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-14T19:17:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-14T20:08:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2025\/11\/sm_1763138060.084648.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"538\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/un-elects-phoebe-okowa-to-international-court-of-justice#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/un-elects-phoebe-okowa-to-international-court-of-justice\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"UN Elects Phoebe Okowa to International Court of Justice\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-14T19:17:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-14T20:08:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/un-elects-phoebe-okowa-to-international-court-of-justice\"},\"wordCount\":222,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/un-elects-phoebe-okowa-to-international-court-of-justice#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2025\/11\/sm_1763138060.084648.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Elections\",\"International Court of Justice\",\"Kenya\",\"the Hague\",\"UN security Council\",\"United Nations\",\"United Nations General Assembly\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/un-elects-phoebe-okowa-to-international-court-of-justice#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/un-elects-phoebe-okowa-to-international-court-of-justice\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/un-elects-phoebe-okowa-to-international-court-of-justice\",\"name\":\"UN Elects Phoebe Okowa to International Court of Justice - 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