Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Bohdan Aurescu ran for the post of judge of the International Court of Justice against a Russian candidate and lost him categorically. The bill received 117 votes in the General Assembly (he needed 97). Russia received only 77 votes.

Aurescu received 9 votes in the Security Council.

“This is a victory for Romania, the rule of international law, reflecting our firm commitment to the rules-based international order,” President Iohannis wrote on X.

The victory is all the more important because huge support was received not only by European states, but also by Asian and African states, which are less interested in the fate of the war in Ukraine.

• This is the first time that Romania holds such a position in the most important judicial body of the UN.
• The election of ICJ judges is considered one of the most complex selection processes in a multilateral system, with voting taking place simultaneously in both the General Assembly and the Security Council, with an absolute majority required in both forums.
• From the very beginning, Aureska was supported by a coalition of various states, he was not just a regional candidate, even if he applied for the position of judge of the International Court of Justice from Eastern Europe. His co-nominees were the Netherlands, Italy, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and New Zealand.
• In New York at the UN, everyone compared the battle between Aureska and Russia to the story between David and Goliath. A candidate from a small and medium-sized state defeated a permanent member of the Security Council, one of the most powerful states in the world.
• The countries of Asia and Europe voted for Bohdan Aureska not only for his 5-year work as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but also because he is a member of the prestigious UN International Law Commission for the second consecutive term and co-president of the research group “The impact of sea level rise on international law” is a relevant topic for two-thirds of the world’s states, given that the rise in sea level is a direct consequence of global warming.
• Judges of the International Court of Justice are elected for nine years by the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council from a list of candidates.

Since September 2004, Bohdan Aurescu was the representative of Romania at the UN International Court of Justice, coordinating – throughout the proceedings – the activities of the team that represented Romania in the legal proceedings with Ukraine at the International Court of Justice regarding the delimitation of the maritime space in the Black Sea, which ended on February 3, 2009 with the victory of 79 .34% of the disputed territory, i.e. 9,700 km² of continental shelf and exclusive economic zone returned to Romania – the only extension of Romania’s sovereign jurisdiction and sovereign rights after 1918.