The election of five judges to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was held at the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council on November 11-12, according to the United Nations (UN).

Chinese candidate Xue Hanqin, currently serving as the vice president of the ICJ, was re-elected with high votes.

Xue was first elected to the ICJ in 2010 and was re-elected in 2011. She has been vice-president of the court since February 6, 2018. She is the first woman from China to serve on the bench and the first woman vice-president of the ICJ.

She will serve a term of nine years, from February 6, 2021 to 2030, when her current term expires.

Prior to her career in the ICJ, Xue was a member and chair of the UN International Law Commission. She also used to be director-general of the Department of Treaty and Law of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, legal counsel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands and Chinese ambassador to ASEAN.

The four other newly elected judges are from Japan, Slovakia, Uganda and Germany.

The ICJ, which is based in The Hague, the Netherlands, is the principal judicial organ of the UN. The court's role is to settle legal disputes submitted to it by states and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by UN bodies such as the General Assembly and the Security Council.

The court is composed of 15 judges of different nationalities, all of whom are "persons of high moral character, who possess the qualifications required in their respective countries for appointment to the highest judicial offices or are jurisconsults of recognized competence in international law."

Five judges of the court are elected every three years and may be re-elected, with the requirement of obtaining an absolute majority of votes in the General Assembly and the Security Council for their election.

(Source: Xinhua and the People's Courts News and Communication Agency/Translated and edited by Women of China)