On September 9, 2002, the Project on International Courts and Tribunals held a panel discussion on Women and Public International Litigation at New York University. The meeting was the second on the subject; the first was held in London on July 13, 2001.

The Chair of the Panel was Cherie Booth QC, Matrix Chamber, and other panelist were (in alphabetical order):

Dr. Kelly Askin, Director, International Criminal Justice Institute
Christine Chinkin, Professor, London School of Economics
Shepard Forman, Director, Center on International Cooperation, New York University
Thordis Ingadottir, PICT, New York University
H.E. Navanethem Pillay, President, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Pam Spees, Program Director, Women's Caucus for Gender Justice
Cate Steains, Counselor, Permanent Mission of Australia to the United Nations
Ambassador Wegger Christian Str¯mmen, Permanent Mission of Norway to the United Nations.

The goal of the meeting was to draw attention to the imperative of ensuring fair representation of women judges and professionals in international courts and tribunals, and the current opportunities to make this a reality. The upcoming elections of judges to the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda provided the focus of discussion.

Participants addressed several issues, including:

• The absence and under-representation of women judges in international courts and tribunals
• The legal obligation of states to ensure to women the opportunity to participate in the work of international courts and tribunals
• The commitment by the international community through the Security Council and General Assembly resolutions to nominate and elect more women to international courts and tribunals
• The special requirements in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of fair representation of female and male judges, and adopted nomination and election mechanism by the Assembly of States Parties to implement this requirement
• How the lack of women judges affects the legitimacy of international courts
• The contribution of women judges in the development of international law at the International Criminal Tribunal in Rwanda and for former Yugoslavia
• The need of women judges on panels addressing gender violence
• The importance of having women professional at all levels at international courts
• The lack of mandate and commitment by states delegations to address those issues
• The persistent censurable "horse-trading" practices in election of international judges
• How an outdated image of what background a international judge should have works against women candidates
  
  Opening Remarks by Cherie Booth
  
  Background papers:
  
  Women and Public International Litigation by Jan Linehan (July 2002, updated as of September 1 2002)
  
  The International Criminal Court, Nomination and Election of Judges by Thordis Ingadottir (June 2002)