The issue

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is often considered the world’s most important international court, addressing issues like climate change (request from United Nations (UN) General Assembly), the funding of terrorism (Ukraine v Russia) and genocide (the Gambia v Myanmar). Despite the requirement in the ICJ’s Statute that its judiciary be representative (Art 3, Art 9), the Statute’s textual references to representation focus on representation from  ‘the main forms of civilization’ and ‘the principal legal systems of the world.’ Achieving gender equal representation (or gender parity) for ICJ judges has been slow. Four of the fifteen ICJ judges are women. Since the court's establishment in 1945, only six women have been appointed ICJ judges.

Equality, diversity and inclusivity on judicial benches matters. Judicial identity shapes approaches to law-making. Key goals like access to justice, fairness, and the legitimacy of courts require gender-equal judicial benches. Despite the legal entrenchment of gender equality as a globally agreed norm (UN Charter Article 8; SDG 5), and despite multiple previous calls by civil society to create gender parity on the ICJ bench, gains for women’s participation in key public institutions have been unable to achieve gender parity. The Working Group focuses on the practicalities of achieving gender parity on the ICJ.

Our work

This project connects cutting-edge academic thinking, institutional actors, and transnational organising to build a theoretically-informed agenda to create a gender equal ICJ judiciary in the 2026 election and beyond. Bringing together feminist legal academics, institutional actors, international legal practitioners, and policy campaigners, the project consolidates existing cross-disciplinary and multi-sited networks with a transnational feminist commitment to the relationship between local and global knowledge.

The Working Group has met twice as a large network on 4 September 2023 and 8 March 2024 to develop the project and has set up regional and thematic working groups to address several strategic areas. Individually and collectively, we have produced research outputs, infographics, podcasts, and more.

As a network, we are committed to an open, inclusive and collaborative approach. The network is constantly expanding and deepening, so it is never too late to get involved. Please indicate if you would like to participate in a working group here. Alternatively, please get in touch with us on genderparity[.]icj[@]gmail.com about participation. Your data and information will be held securely and confidentially. To simply stay informed, please sign up for our mailing list here.

Background on ICJ Gender Parity

The ICJ has had only six women as permanent judges since its establishment almost 80 years ago. Four of those six women judges are serving currently on the bench of 15 judges – and this is still less than one third of serving judges. From its establishment in 1945 until 1995, when Dame Rosalyn Higgins became the first woman ICJ judge, 100% of judges were men. Further, only seven women have served as what are known as Judges ad hoc. These are judges that can be appointed by States which are party to a case before the ICJ but do not have a judge of its nationality on the Bench. This is compared to 118 men, many of whom served as a judge ad hoc in repeated cases.

In the most recent election of five judges to the ICJ on 9 November 2023, States elected two women. We very much welcome the election of these two highly qualified jurists, Hilary Charlesworth and Sarah Hull Cleveland. Yet, this election retained the previous gender imbalance, given one was seeking re-election and another replaced an outgoing woman judge – Judge Joan Donoghue. A great deal more must be done by all UN Member States and Permanent Court of Arbitrations (PCA) National Groups, who play a role in nominating candidates during the three-year election cycles, to achieve gender inclusivity on the ICJ bench.

To achieve this, National Groups at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) and equivalents must nominate and elect more women candidates for the 2026 election. The Working Group is committed to working with all relevant parties to support this outcome.