In December 2011, Mrs. Fatou Bensouda was elected by consensus by the Assembly of States Parties to serve as the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. She was nominated & supported as the sole African candidate for election by the African Union. She previously served as the Attorney General and Minister of Justice in The Republic of The Gambia.
Her international career began at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda where she rose to the position of Senior Legal Advisor & Head of the Legal Advisory Unit. She then joined the ICC as the Court’s first Deputy Prosecutor. Mrs. Bensouda has served as delegate to UN conferences on crime prevention, the Organization of African Unity’s Ministerial Meetings on Human Rights & as delegate of The Gambia to the meetings of the Preparatory Commission for the ICC.
She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the distinguished ICJ International Jurists Award (2009); the American Society of International Law’s Honorary Membership Award (2014), the XXXV Peace Prize by the UN Association of Spain (2015) & the Praeis Elit Award (2015). In addition to several honorary doctorates, Mrs. Bensouda has been listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world (2012); by the New African magazine as one of the “Most Influential Africans;” by Foreign Policy as one of the “Leading Global Thinkers” (2013) & by Jeune Afrique as one of 50 African women who, by their actions & initiatives in their respective roles, advance the African continent (2014 & 2015).