Nigerian lawyer, Ibrahim James Pam is amongst the 12 shortlisted candidates to assume office as the Registrar of the International Criminal Court(ICC).
The successful candidate will in 2023 take over from Mr Peter Edward Lewis who was elected on March 28, 2018, for a period of five years, and sworn in on April 17, 2018. Before his election, Mr Lewis was a retired British prosecutor, serving from 2007 until 2016 as the Chief Executive of the Crown Prosecution Service under the Director of Public Prosecutions. His tenure expires on April 16, 2023.
The list of the shortlisted candidates include Mr Juan Pablo Alban Alencastro (Ecuador), Mr Amady Ba (Senegal), Ms Fidelma Teresa Donlon(Ireland), Mr Luis Mariano Hermosillo Sosa (Mexico), Mr Pouraogo Julien Kouda (Burkina Faso), Ms Kate Mackintosh(United Kingdom), Ms Gabrielle Mckintyre(Australia),and Mr Christian Mahr (Japan).Others include Ms Rosette Muzigo-Morrison(Uganda), Mr Ibrahim James Pam (Nigeria), Ms Marie Inger Tuma (Sweden), and Mr Oswaldo Zavala Giler(Ecuador)
The list was presented to the President, Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Status of the ICC, Ms Silva Fernandez de Gurmendi via a letter dated June 17, 2022.
The letter stated that pursuant to Article 43, paragraph 3 of the Rome Statute, the Registrar shall be a person of “high moral character, be highly competent, and have an excellent knowledge of and be fluent in at least one of the working languages of the court”. Article 43, paragraph 4 mandated the judges to “elect the Registrar by an absolute majority by secret ballot, taking into account any recommendation by the Assembly of States Parties”.
The vacancy was given very wide publicity in the ICC networks after which 88 application letters were received. The Human Resources Section after due diligence and scrutiny pruned the list to 45 candidates which met the “minimum educational, linguistic, and professional experience requirements stipulated in the vacancy announcement”.
The list was then submitted to the Presidency which further evaluated the candidates in terms of requirements, preferences, and additional advantages, taking into consideration “the importance of reflecting geographical representation and gender balance”. On this basis, the presidency prepared a consolidated shortlist which was submitted to all judges, together with the full application of every candidate that applied.
Nigeria’s candidate, Pam, is a 1988 law graduate of University of Jos, and 1989 graduate of Nigerian Law School. He also attended London School of Economics and Political Science. An accomplished international lawyer and criminal investigator, with strong leadership experience and specialization in investigation of mass crimes, human rights abuses, as well as fraud and financial crimes, and with a broad experience in administrative and criminal investigations in multiple jurisdictions around the world, on behalf of national and international investigative offices. He is proficient in the use of analysis, visualization and evidence management tools such as i2Analyst Notebook, CaseMap, RingTail and GoCase. He also possesses excellent oral and presentational capabilities, as well as highly competent numerical and interpretative skills. He works well under high pressure with tight deadlines and is comfortable with multinational and multicultural teams.
Presently, he is Head of the Independent Integrity Unit, Green Climate Fund, Songdo, Republic of Korea, a position he’s held since November 2016.
In his statement of motivation submitted to the President of ICC, Pam said: “Having worked in the area of international criminal justice, investigations and prosecutions of Rome Statute crimes, internal oversight, administrative and criminal investigations, fraud risk management and fraud prevention at national and international level over the last twenty-two years, and given the diversity of my experience over this period, in addition to twelve years of banking and litigation experience as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria prior to that, I offer myself for consideration for the position of Registrar of the International Criminal Court.
