Ms. Bensouda is expected to be elected on 12 December at the tenth session of the Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, the court – which is based in The Hague in the Netherlands – said in a press release.
She will assume office 16 June next year to replace Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, who has been prosecutor since 2003 and whose term will come to an end.
Ms. Bensouda has served as ICC’s Deputy Prosecutor since September 2004, and previously worked as a Legal Adviser and Trial Attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, where she rose to the position of senior legal adviser and head of the legal advisory unit.
The consultations that led to an informal agreement that she be considered for nomination as ICC Prosecutor lasted four weeks and included a series of meetings of the New York Working Group of the Bureau, where the four candidates shortlisted by the search committee were given the opportunity to present themselves to States Parties.
