Monday, December 4th, 2023, Professor Iulia Motoc, teaching member of the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Bucharest was appointed Judge for the International Criminal Court. She has previously been judge for Romania at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), position held for nearly 10 years, from 2013 to 2023.
“The appointment of Professor Iulia Motoc for this position, a premiere for Romania, represents a success of Romanian diplomacy and reconfirms our country’s profile as a state deeply attached to international right and order of law at international level, as well as to the values of humanism constantly supported by the Romanian diplomacy. Promoting professor Iulia Motoc for a position of judge for the International Criminal Court (ICC), and her election in this position are part of Romania’s active endeavors to support the International Criminal Court, a resort that is unique through its sanctioning mandate, under the condition of the Rome Statute, of those who commit crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide or aggression crimes”, affirms the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania in a press release.
Professor Iulia Motoc, judge to Romania at the European Court of Human Rights for the last 10 years
For 7 years, Iulia Motoc has lead the Work Group referring to ECHR Judges statute, which included judges’ ethic issues. In addition, as a judge in the Grand Chamber, Iulia Motoc joined panels that decided cases iconic for the entire world: the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukraine and Holland v. Russia (MH17), Jaloud v. Holland concerning the situation in Iraq, Ibrahim v. Great Britain. In 2019, Iulia Motoc was invited to teach at The Hague Academy of International Law, being the first Romanian invited to teach at this prestigious institution, after the fall of communism.
The International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court was founded under the Roma Statute treaty, which was adopted on July 17th, 1998 and entered into force on July 1st, 2002. At the present moment, 123 states are part of the ICC Statute. The ICC is complementary to national criminal jurisdictions, its competence including the gravest crimes that regard the entire international community.
Romania is traditionally a supporter of international criminal justice. Through the voice of brilliant diplomat and jurist, Vespasian Pella, Romania has pleaded, ever since the interwar period, for the establishment of a permanent international criminal jurisdiction supporting peace and stability in the world.
Romania signed the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute on July 7th, 1999, and ratified it through Law no. 111 of 28 March 2002, being among the first 60 states which engaged in this endeavor, thus making the Statute’s entry into force possible. More recently, Romania is one of the states which, on March 2nd, 2022, notified the ICC prosecutor by soliciting him to investigate the war crimes and genocide committed in the context of the war between Russia and Ukraine.