Busia Senator and former Attorney-General Amos Wako. He has been elected
as the Vice-Chairman of the International Law Commission. He will serve
in the position for the next one year. PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
A vote conducted on Monday by members of the Commission saw Kenya’s former Attorney-General win the seat.
He will be serving in the Commission for the next one year.
Mr Wako, who was Kenya’s Attorney-general from 1991 to 2011, was seconded by Egyptian diplomat Hussein Hassouna.
The ILC is a UN body charged with “overseeing the progressive development of international law and its codification.”
It publishes two annual reports meant to help members of the UN come up with proper international laws.
During
the vote, Mr Wako was endorsed for being a “well-known international
personality” in the legal system because of his time as Attorney-General
as well as having served in various international appointments.
He boasts, on his CV, as having been the State’s chief legal advisor when it attained a new constitution in 2010.
And
although critics argue he often looked the other way when the State
clamped down on dissents, his international career also flourished.
For
example, between 1985 and 1992, he served as the vice-chairman of the
UN Human Rights Committee, Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on
Human Rights and Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General to countries
such as Timor-Leste, Suriname, Algeria, Liberia and Colombia.
He
was also the also President of the International Seabed Authority and
Vice President of the Conference which adopted the Rome Statute in 1997,
the principal foundation law forming the International Criminal Court.
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In
2009, he presided over the Durban Review Conference on Racism,
Racialism and other Xenophobia, before he was first elected to the ILC
for a five-year term by the UN General Assembly in November 2011.
He
has once been the Secretary-General of the African Bar Association
between 1978 and 1980, a time he also held the same position for the
Inter-African Union of Lawyers.
Wako studied law at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
He
also studied economics at the University of London in the United
Kingdom. He earned a postgraduate degree in law from the same
institution.
Mr Wako will serve under Indian lawyer and
Secretary-General of the Indian Society of International Law Narinder
Singh who has been elected Chairman.
The Commission often has two vice-chairmen.
The second vice-chairman’s post went to Czech law academic Pavel Sturma.
The
Commission’s members also voted in Mathias Forteau of France as
chairman of the Drafting Committee while Mr Vazquez-Bermudez of Ecuador
was elected Rapporteur.
The International Law
Commission, established by the UN General Assembly in 1948, often
consists of members who are “persons of recognised competence in
international law”.
Its membership is drawn from
diplomats, practicing lawyers, government ministers, international law
lecturers as well as officials in international organisations.
Its main function has been to publish discussions and decisions on international legal subjects.
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