25th Anniversary of the Rome Statute: Challenges of the Rules Based System

The SAIS Governance, Politics, and Society (GPS) Focus Area faculty co-leads, Obiora Okafor and Elayne Whyte-Gomez welcome Judge Sergio Ugalde Godinez, President, Pre-Trial Division, International Criminal Court to SAIS to discuss the 25th Anniversary of the Rome Statute: Challenges of the Rules Based System.

The Rome Statute System of international criminal justice was created 25 years ago with the aim of putting an end to impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of international concern, to provide redress to the victims and to contribute to the preventions of such crimes. Judge Ugalde Godinez will discuss the legacy of the ICC after 25 years and the challenges the system of international criminal justice faces today in light of the erosion of the rules based system of international relations.

• Thursday, March 14, 2024
• JHU Bloomberg Center, School of Advanced International Studies
  555 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
  Washington, DC 20001
  Room 426/430 (Link)
• 5:00 - 6:30 pm (program)
• 6:30-7:30 pm (reception)
  Registration Required

Judge Sergio Ugalde Godínez

Judge Ugalde is currently the President of the Pre-Trial Division at the International Criminal Court. He has been Adjunct Professor of International Law at the UN mandated University for Peace. He served as Vice-President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute and Coordinator of the Hague Working Group of the Assembly's Bureau from 2016 to 2018.

Judge Ugalde was the chair of the international law commission at Costa Rica's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for nearly 20 years, and in that capacity acted as the country's most senior adviser in international law, international human rights law and international humanitarian law, promoting policy on human rights and conflict resolution through international law.

He has advised and represented Costa Rica before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Central American Court of Justice and the Inter-American Human Rights System. He also acted as counsel, advocate and co-agent before the International Court of Justice on several cases. He was Costa Rica's Ambassador to the Netherlands (2014-2018), and represented his country at the Hague Conference on Private International Law and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). He has lectured several times at the Hague Academy of International Law summer courses programme. He has spoken and lectured in several universities across three continents.

Judge Ugalde studied law at the University of Costa Rica and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom (Corpus Christi College). He is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration since 2005. He was elected Judge of the International Criminal Court in 2020.

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