SINGAPORE: Singapore will nominate its Ambassador for International Law Rena Lee for election as a judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2026.
This will be the first time a Singaporean is nominated for election as an ICJ Judge since Singapore joined the United Nations in 1965.
Mrs Lee - a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration - has a career spanning over three decades in various roles in the government.
These include roles at the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Ministry of Defence and as the chief executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore.
"She has significant expertise over a wide range of international law matters, including law of the sea, climate change and environmental law, international humanitarian law, and human rights law," said the Ministry of Law and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a joint press release on Monday (Oct 14).
Mrs Lee was appointed Ambassador for International Law in 2023. Before that, she served as Singapore's oceans issues ambassador and a Special Envoy of the minister for foreign affairs.
She was also elected as president of the United Nations Intergovernmental Conference on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ), where she presided over complex negotiations.
"These negotiations successfully culminated in the adoption, by consensus, of a landmark international agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in June 2023," the ministries said.
Mrs Lee was also elected and served as a member of the Legal and Technical Commission of the International Seabed Authority from 2017 to 2022.
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CNA Explains: What is the UN High Seas Treaty and how will it protect the world’s oceans? Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan said Mrs Lee's "able leadership over the negotiations" led to the consensus adoption of the BBNJ agreement.
Minister for Law K Shanmugam said she has "Singapore's full support".
"It also reaffirms Singapore’s staunch support for the ICJ’s important role in upholding international law, fostering the peaceful resolution of disputes, and safeguarding the interests of all countries," he added.
The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the UN and was established in June 1945.
The court’s role is to settle legal disputes submitted to it and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorised UN organs and specialised agencies.
The court is composed of 15 judgesfachai, elected to office for nine years by the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.