In nearly 80 years, only five female judges have sat on the bench of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), four of whom are serving currently. In the autumn of 2023, there will be a new round of elections of judges for the ICJ.

In this episode Dr Gail Lythgoe discusses the issue of gender parity on the bench of the ICJ with Dr Jessica Corsi, Senior Lecturer at City Law School ⁠⁠and the Violence and Society Centre.

The conversation covers the barriers to gender parity, the use of quotas and intersectionality.

Dr Gail Lythgoe is a Lecturer in Global Law at The University of Edinburgh, and Women in International Law (WILNET).

Dr Jessica Corsi is a Senior Lecturer in Law at City Law School, ⁠⁠and a founding faculty member of City’s Violence and Society Centre.

Note: Since recording, ⁠a list of candidates for the 2023 ICJ elections⁠ has been published, featuring two women only – and re-electing one of the current four. There is not a chance of achieving gender parity in this round, making this an even more important issue to discuss now.

The music used in this episode is: "Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

On 16 September 2022, Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, from the Kurdish minority, died following her arrest and beatings by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating Iran’s strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf. Her death in police custody enraged ordinary Iranian citizens including many women who have expressed solidarity with Ms Amini. Since then the protests, led by women, have swelled, with demands from more freedoms to an end of the authoritarian state. 

Listen to this critical, timely and important discussion with the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Professor Javaid Rehman. He is in conversation with Dr Gail Lythgoe of Manchester International Law Centre.

The music used in this episode is: "Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/