Judge Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade of International Court of Justice Passed Away

International Court of Justice announces the passing of H.E. Judge Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade on 29 May 2022 in Brazil. Judge Cançado Trindade had been a Member of the Court from 6 February 2009. Having been re-elected on 6 February 2018, his latest term of office was due to expire in February 2027.

Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on 17 September 1947. He led an illustrious career in the fields of international law and human rights.

After obtaining a Bachelors’s degree in law from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, he pursued his Master’s and PhD in international law at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He later obtained further honorary titles and prizes from various universities across Latin America, Europe and Asia.

In his home country, he served as Legal Adviser to the Ministry of External Relations of Brazil from 1985 to 1990, and represented Brazil in a number of important regional and international conferences.

Judge Cançado Trindade was a member of the Commission of Advisors to UNESCO on the Right to Peace as a Human Right, a research supervisor for the project on International Humanitarian Law and Customary Law of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and an arbitrator of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

In Latin America, he notably served as a judge at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights from 1995 to 2008, having been elected its President from 1999 to 2004. He was also Executive Director of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights from 1994 to 1996.

 Judge Cançado Trindade served as a professor and lecturer at a number of renowned universities, academies and institutes throughout his long career. He authored 78 books and some 790 monographs, contributions to various publications, as well as articles on international law. He published in numerous countries and several languages. He also held various advisory functions in international and regional organizations.

In addition, Judge Cançado Trindade participated in a number of professional associations and learned societies in different capacities. In particular, he was a member of the Institute de droit international from 1997, and, from 2004, a member of the Curatorium of the Hague Academy of International Law. He was also Director of the Brazilian Journal of International Law from 1985, and Co-Director of the Brazilian Journal of Human Rights from 2001.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It was established by the United Nations Charter in June 1945 and began its activities in April 1946. The Court is composed of 15 judges elected for a nine-year term by the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations. The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). The Court has a twofold role: first, to settle, in accordance with international law, through judgments which have binding force and are without appeal for the parties concerned, legal disputes submitted to it by States; and, second, to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by duly authorized United Nations organs and agencies of the system.