The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday announced a decision that has been widely recognised as a historic precedent.
A panel of three judges, known as Pre-Trial Chamber I, issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif over a range of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant mark the first time in the court’s 22-year history that arrest warrants have been issued for western-allied senior officials.
The long-anticipated decision came six months after chief prosecutor Karim Khan requested them, as Israel’s devastating onslaught on Gaza continues, with over 44,000 Palestinians killed since October of last year.
The delay in responding to the seemingly urgent request prompted speculations about the impact of Israeli-US pressures on the court.
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For more than a year, the US and Israel have challenged the ICC’s jurisdiction and threatened its judges with retaliation, including sanctions. Israel has also challenged the impartiality of its judges.
But on 21 November, the judges took the decision anyway.
The ICC has a total of 18 judges who serve in different chambers, including the Pre-Trial, Trial and Appeals chambers.
Judges are nominated by state parties to the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty, and then elected by the Assembly of States Parties, the court’s governing body.
Judges must demonstrate high moral character, impartiality and integrity, meeting the qualifications required in their home countries for appointment to the highest judicial offices.
Once elected, ICC judges serve a non-renewable nine-year term.
Below are the profiles of the three judges serving on Pre-Trial Chamber I, who were tasked with examining evidence and issuing warrants related to the situation in Palestine.
Judge Nicolas Guillou
Judge Nicolas Guillou, from France, is the president of the Pre-Trial Chamber I, which issued the arrest warrant against the Israeli leaders.
He began his term on 11 March 2024.
Guillou previously spent four years as a Pre-Trial judge at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers. He also served as chef de cabinet to the president of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (2015-2019) and liaison prosecutor at the US Department of Justice (2012-2015).
Between 2006 and 2012, Guillou worked for the French justice ministry as deputy head of the commercial law section, adviser to the minister on criminal Affairs and diplomatic adviser to the minister.
Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou
Judge Reine Alapini-Gansou, from Benin, is the second vice president of the ICC and a member of Pre-Trial Chamber I.
She was a member of the Pre-Trial Chamber that issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March. On 13 November, a court in Moscow ordered her arrest in absentia over what the court said was an “illegal” arrest warrant issued for Putin.
Alapini-Gansou began her term as an ICC judge on 11 March 2018.
Prior to joining the ICC, Alapini-Gansou served as chair of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Africa’s primary human rights body (2009-2012) and special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders in Africa (2005- 2009 and 2012-2017).
In 2011, she was appointed as a judge at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the world’s oldest international court.
Alapini-Gansou has served as a Pre-Trial judge in many cases, including situations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Bolivia and Belarus.
Judge Beti Hohler
Judge Beti Hohler, from Slovenia, is a member of Pre-Trial Chamber I.
She was appointed to the chamber in October, following a sudden request for leave by her predecessor, Romanian judge Iulia Motoc, on health grounds.
Hohler is also a member of Trial Chamber V at the ICC, currently presiding over the Prosecutor v Alfred Yekatom and Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona case.
She began her term as an ICC judge on 11 March 2024. Prior to this, she served as a trial lawyer in the Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC.
Before joining the ICC in 2015, Hohler was an adviser for the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo.
In February 2015, she wrote a legal and policy briefing commenting on Palestine’s accession to the ICC. In her analysis, Hohler explained the legal consequences of Palestine’s membership, how Israel may challenge the court and the extent of the court’s jurisdiction over Israelis and non-Palestinians. She concluded that “with Palestine’s accession to the statute, the legal framework has changed and the parties to the conflict would be wise to accept and respect that”.
Hohler began her career in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where she served at the Court of Appeals before working as a senior associate at a law firm.
She regularly trains judges and advocates. Hohler is also co-founder of the Institute for International Legal and Advocacy Training in The Hague.