On 12 December 2011, Mrs. Fatou Bensouda of The Gambia was elected by consensus Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court by the Assembly of States Parties. Mrs. Bensouda was sworn in on 15 June 2012.
Mrs. Bensouda had previously held the position of ICC
Deputy Prosecutor (Prosecutions), having been elected with an
overwhelming majority by the Assembly of States Parties on 8 August 2004
and serving as such until May 2012.
Prior to her work at the International Criminal
Court, Mrs. Bensouda worked as Legal Adviser and Trial Attorney at the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania,
rising to the position of Senior Legal Advisor and Head of The Legal
Advisory Unit.
Before joining the ICTR, she was General Manager of a
leading commercial bank in The Gambia. Between 1987 and 2000, she was
successively Senior State Counsel, Principal State Counsel, Deputy
Director of Public Prosecutions, Solicitor General and Legal Secretary
of the Republic, and Attorney General and Minister of Justice, in which
capacity she served as Chief Legal Advisor to the President and Cabinet
of The Republic of The Gambia.
Mrs. Bensouda also took part in negotiations on the
treaty of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the
West African Parliament and the ECOWAS Tribunal. She has served as
delegate to United Nations conferences on crime prevention, the
Organization of African Unity’s Ministerial Meetings on Human Rights,
and as delegate of The Gambia to the meetings of the Preparatory
Commission for the International Criminal Court.
Mrs. Bensouda holds a masters degree in International
Maritime Law and Law of The Sea and as such is the first international
maritime law expert of The Gambia.
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