The former Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu was elected on Thursday, November 9, as a judge of the UN International Court of Justice. He has become the first Romanian to fulfil this position.
Aurescu was nominated for this candidacy by Romania and nine other countries – the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Latvia, Italy, Poland, Peru, Estonia and Bulgaria. He competed for the Eastern Europe position with Russian judge Kirill Gevorgian, supported by Russia, China and Belarus.
Bogdan Aurescu obtained 117 votes in the General Assembly, while Gevorgian only 77 votes. This is a historic defeat for Russia, which hoped to have Gevorgian re-elected. It is the first time in the UN International Court of Justice history that the Russian representative is not re-elected.
In the Security Council, Aurescu obtained nine votes.
He mentioned this accomplishment in a post on X:
Honored to be elected today as Judge of the UN International Court of Justice @CIJ_ICJ by #UNGA with 117 votes & UN Security Council with 9 votes as the first ever Romanian🇹🇩 to fulfil this function! I thank 🇺🇳UN Member States for their trust in me & in RO School of Int'l Law! pic.twitter.com/hoQxAIgiPB
— Bogdan Aurescu (@BogdanAurescu) November 9, 2023
All the elected judges on Thursday, November 9, are:
- Bogdan Aurescu Romania
- Hilary Charlesworth Australia
- Sarah Cleveland
- Juan Manuel Gómez Robledo Mexico
- Dire Tladi South Africa
Bogdan-Lucian Aurescu was Romania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs between 4 November 2019 and 15 June 2023 and between 24 November 2014 and 17 November 2015. A career diplomat (since 1996), he has the diplomatic rank of Ambassador (since 2014). Between 6 May 2016 and 4 November 2019, he was the Presidential Advisor for Foreign Policy of the President of Romania. On 15 June 2023, he was again appointed as Presidential Advisor for Foreign Policy of the President of Romania.
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