SINGAPORE: Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam issued a statement of support for the nomination of Ambassador Rena Lee as a Judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2026.
In an Oct 14 (Tuesday) Facebook post, he noted that Ambassador Lee will bring her “deep legal expertise, dedication to upholding the rule of law, and sensitivity to differing views”.
Mr Shanmugam also wrote that her candidature stresses the commitment of Singapore to promote and advance the international rule of law.
Located in The Hague, Netherlands, the International Court of Justice, which is sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six organs of the United Nations. It is the only international court to adjudicate general disputes between countries.
Earlier this year, Ambassador Lee, a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, made TIME magazine’s prestigious list of 100 Most Influential People of 2024.
A write-up for the list from oceanographer Sylvia Earle points out that one of the challenges that Ambassador Lee has faced is “navigating negotiations for a legal framework governing human activities over and under about half of the world”.
Ms Earle noted Ambassador Lee’s “calm dignity, determination, and grace” and added that she has been successful in leading deliberations to “protect biodiversity within the blue heart of the planet, the cornerstone of earth’s life-support system”.
“We all should applaud her heroic moves, breaking decades of deadlock over governance of human actions that impact not just the future of tunas, sharks, squids, and whales, but that of all of life on earth—humans included,” wrote Ms Earle.
The full statement of support from the Law and Home Affairs Ministries may be found here.
Ambassador Lee has spent more than three decades in different governmental roles, including stints at the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Ministry of Defence, and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, where she served as Chief Executive.
Her areas of expertise cover a broad range of international legal matters, including the law of the sea, climate change and environmental law, international humanitarian law, and human rights law.
In 2023, she was appointed Ambassador for International Law and served as well as Ambassador for Oceans and Law of the Sea Issues and Special Envoy of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and presided over the United Nations Intergovernmental Conference on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction.
Negotiations she led that lasted more than five years resulted in the adoption of a landmark international agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in June 2023. /TISG
Read also: Singaporean diplomat Rena Lee recognized in Time’s 2024 list of most influential people