Luis Moreno Ocampo has been the face of the permanent court that hunts for war criminals and 'génocidaires' around the world. But his nine-year term comes to an end in June and his current deputy might follow in his footsteps.

By Thijs Bouwknegt, The Hague

The 50-year-old Gambian Fatou Bensouda is now deputy prosecutor at the ICC. But on Tuesday she was shortlisted as a candidate to replace Ocampo whose contract cannot be renewed.

A new prosecutor will be elected in New York in December. The candidates' names were released on Tuesday by a selection committee of the Assembly of States Parties, which oversees the ICC.

Since February, the committee has interviewed 8 candidates from a list of 52 before deciding on the shortlist. ICC member states must now reach a consensus on one candidate, who is scheduled to take office next July. The shortlist, however, is a list of favourites since any state party can still formally nominate a candidate.

Bensouda
Bensouda has long been regarded as favourite to take over from the Argentine prosecutor, particularly as the ICC's cases are largely focused on Africa. Where Ocampo lost a lot of support among African states, Bensouda has the backing of the African Union (AU).

Before she joined the ICC in 2004, she worked as a legal adviser and prosecutor at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania and rose to the position of head of the legal advisory unit. Before she moved to Arusha, Bensouda worked as general manager of a leading commercial bank in Gambia.

International Justice
But besides Bensouda there are three other candidates, all with a great deal of experience in international justice. Mohamed Chande Othman, chief justice of Tanzania, is the second African on the list. He was prosecutor general with UNTAET, the UN mission to east Timor. Before that post he was chief of prosecutions at the ICTR.

The other two candidates are Andrew Cayley, currently co-prosecutor at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) handling Khmer Rouge trials. And Robert Petit, currently Counsel at the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Section at the justice department in Canada.

Cayley, a Briton, worked at the ICC’s prosecutor's office before (2006-07), investigating crimes in Sudan's Darfur region. Prior to his ICC job, Cayley worked at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). A salient detail in his CV, is that he worked as a co-counsel for former Liberian president Charles Taylor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL).

Robert Petit, likewise, is no stranger to international criminal justice. He was international co-prosecutor at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, prosecutor at the Freetown court and in East Timor. And - like Bensouda and Othman – he also worked at the ICTR.

Praised and criticised
The ICC is the first and only permanent international court capable of trying perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. And Ocampo has won praise for his role in promoting its work since 2002. He has launched seven formal investigations, issued arrest warrants for Sudan's president Omar al Bashir and Muammar Gaddafi and started three trials against four Congolese men. A first judgement is expected in the case of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo later this year.

But he has also been criticised because of the ICC's slow progress in achieving results. And for failing to bring a larger number of senior government officials to trial for a range of atrocities.

Caseload
Leading the Office of The Prosecutor (OTP) at the ICC will be a huge task and the 2011 elections will impact on almost every aspect of the court over the next nine years. The new prosecutor will be responsible for carrying on current and starting future investigations.

Ocampo already began investigations in the Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Libya. His office publicly issued 18 arrest warrants and nine summonses to appear. Three trials are ongoing, while Ocampo is examining eight situations in four continents: Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Guinea, Honduras, Republic of Korea, Nigeria and Palestine.