Elizabeth Odio Benito

Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, 1993–1998

Odio Benito's involvement in international justice began during her second ministerial term, with her 1993 appointment as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.^[4] A major contribution during these proceedings was Odio Benito's successful effort to have rape and other sexual assaults considered as torture. Her interpretation, based on a case of two Serbian women raped in the Čelebići detention camp, is now an accepted principle of international law.^[5][6]

In 1998 Odio Benito left ICTY as a consequence of becoming Vice-President, but she continued to play an active role in related areas of the law. Most notably, she was president of the United Nations working group that drew up the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture. Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, or Punishment This additional treaty, open to any State that is party to the main UN Convention Against Torture anti-torture Convention, allows for international and independent national experts to visit any prison, detention camp, or similar facility, speak in private with people held there, and make recommendations to authorities aimed at preventing torture or other abuse from being practiced there. The Optional Protocol entered into force on 22 June 2006. As of 31 January 2007 it had 32 State Parties with a further 31 States have signed but not yet ratified the Protocol.

Judge of the International Criminal Court, 2003–2012

Odio Benito's election to the International Criminal Court was not without controversy. Her candidacy had initially been sponsored by Costa Rica, but President Abel Pacheco withdrew support without explanation. Various women's groups mobilised to campaign for her readmittance.Center for the Study of Women She was eventually renominated by Panama, whose then president, Mireya Moscoso, is another noted activist for women's rights. Odio Benito was thus the only candidate not to be sponsored by her own nation. Nevertheless, she was elected in the first out of thirty-three rounds of voting, indicating strong support from the States Parties.

The ICC officially opened on 11 March 2003, with Elizabeth Odio Benito as Second Vice-President.

When the International Criminal Court sentenced Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga to 14 years in prison in July 2012 for using child soldiers in his rebel army in 2002 and 2003 – the first sentence imposed by the court in its history –, Odio Benito disagreed with her two fellow judges and in a dissenting opinion said that 15 years would have been more appropriate given the harm done to the victims and their families,^[7] particularly due to harsh punishments and sexual violence against the UPC's child soldiers.^[8]

Judge of the Interamerican Court of Human Rights

Odio Benito served as a judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights from 2016 to 2021. She served as President in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights from 2020 to 2021. She was the second woman to hold this position.