Meet Nawaf Salam, the second Arab judge to preside over ICJ

Lebanese judge Nawaf Salam was elected on February 6 as the president of the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) for a three-year term, becoming the second Arab judge to preside over the highest human rights court in the world after Algerian Mohammed Bedjaoui, who served as the head of the court from 1994 to 1997.

After his election, Salam announced on his X (formerly Twitter) that his new task is a major responsibility to achieve international justice and uphold international law.

انتخابي رئيسا لمحكمة العدل الدولية مسؤولية كبرى في تحقيق العدالة الدولية واعلاء القانون الدولي. وأول ما يحضر إلى ذهني ايضاً في هذه اللحظة هو همي الدائم ان تعود مدينتي بيروت، أماََ للشرائع كما هو لقبها، وان ننجح كلبنانيين في إقامة دولة القانون في بلادنا وان يسود العدل بين أبنائه. https://t.co/vIs487b3yN

— Nawaf Salam نواف سلام (@nawafasalam) February 6, 2024

Salam, who was born in Beirut on December 15, 1953, has been a member of the ICJ since February 6, 2018. 

He obtained a state doctorate from the French Institute of Political Studies in 1992 and a master of laws at the Harvard Law School in 1991, in addition to a degree in law from the Lebanese University in Beirut in 1984. He also obtained a doctorate in history from Sorbonne University in Paris (1979) and a diploma from the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences Paris (1974).

Salam served as Lebanon’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations in New York from July 2007 to December 2017. He also represented his country in the UN Security Council in 2010 and 2011. He was the vice-president of the 67th session of the UN General Assembly from September 2012 to September 2013 and its acting president in July 2013. In 2016 and 2018, he served as Lebanon’s representative in the UN Economic and Social Council, according to the ICJ website.

The election of Salam, who is a critic of Israel, comes after the ICJ ordered provisional measures on January 26 against Israel to prevent genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, besides ordering Israel to submit a report within a month to show if it complied with the measures. 

In his speech as Lebanon’s permanent representative at the UN on January 24, 2013, Salam called upon the General Assembly to accept Palestine as a full member of the United Nations, saying, “Most importantly, Palestine remains occupied. It is our duty, the duty of the international community, to help it put an end to the occupation and achieve true independence.”