Julia Sebutinde, born on February 28, 1954, is a Ugandan jurist. She is currently serving her second term on the International Court of Justice following her re-election on November 12, 2020. She also is the current chancellor of Muteesa I Royal University, a university owned by the Buganda kingdom. She has been a judge on the court since March 2012. She is the first African woman to sit on the ICJ. Before being elected to the ICJ, Sebutinde was a judge of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. She was appointed to that position in 2007.
Profile Summary
| Name: | Julia Sebutinde |
| Date of Birth: | February 28, 1954 |
| Place of Birth: | Central Region of Uganda |
| Nationality: | Ugandan |
| Occupation: | Jurist |
| Net Worth: | $6 millions |
| Husband: | John Bagunywa Sebutinde |
Early Life and Education
Julia Sebutinde was born on February 28, 1954, in the Central Region of Uganda to a civil servant and a housewife with the Semambo surname. She attended the Lake Victoria Primary School in Entebbe in the 1960s.
She then joined Gayaza High School and later King’s College Budo, before entering Makerere University to study law. Sebutinde graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1977. She obtained the Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Center in Kampala in 1978.
In 1990, she enrolled at the Edinburgh Law School, University of Edinburgh for her Master of Laws, graduating in 1991. In 2009, in recognition of her body of work and contribution to international justice, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Edinburgh.
Career
Julia Sebutinde first worked in the Ministry of Justice in the Government of Uganda from 1978 until 1990. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 1991, she worked in the Ministry of the Commonwealth in the United Kingdom. She later joined the Ministry of Justice in the Republic of Namibia, which had just attained Independence at that time.
In 1996, she was appointed Judge of the High Court of Uganda. In that capacity, she presided over three commissions of inquiry related to the following government departments: Corruption in the Uganda Police, Corruption in the Uganda People’s Defence Force and Corruption in the Uganda Revenue Authority.
In 2005 Justice Julia Sebutinde was appointed, with secondment from the Ugandan government, to the Special Court on Sierra Leone, established by the United Nations.
She was later appointed the Presiding Judge in Courtroom II, at that time responsible for hearing the case against former Liberian strongman, Charles Taylor. In that position she refused to attend a disciplinary hearing against Taylor’s lawyer.
In the ICJ judges election, 2011, Sebutinde was one of eight candidates for five vacant judicial seats on the International Court of Justice, having been nominated by the national groups of Croatia, Denmark, and Uganda in the Permanent Court of Arbitration. In the election, a successful candidate needs an absolute majority of votes both in the United Nations General Assembly and in the United Nations Security Council.
On the first day of voting, four candidates were elected but the fifth position was not filled. When voting adjourned, Abdul Koroma, the incumbent from Sierra Leone, had received 9 votes out of 15 in the Security Council, with 8 votes needed to elect.
Over in the General Assembly, after five rounds of voting, Julia Sebutinde, the contender, had received 97 votes out of 193, with 97 votes needed to elect. When balloting resumed on 13 December 2011, Sebutinde received an absolute majority of votes in both the Security Council and the General Assembly, and thus was declared elected.
Sebutinde was one of the 17 judges ruling on provisional measures in the case Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel).
She voted against all the provisional measures, the only permanent judge to do so. Her dissenting opinion concluded that the dispute in question was essentially political rather than legal, and there was no plausible basis for finding genocidal intent on the part of Israel.
Julia Sebutinde Net worth
Julia Sebutinde has an estimated net worth of $6 millions. Julia Sebutinde is a well-known Ugandan jurist.
Personal Life
Julia Sebutinde is happily married to John Bagunywa Sebutinde and together they are the parents of two daughters.
