renowned Jamaican jurist, will not run for re-election - ICJ

Patrick Robinson, an internationally renowned Jamaican jurist, will not run for re-election to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) when his current term expires in February 2024.

According to sources within the foreign ministry, Jamaica is also unlikely to nominate a candidate for the vacant post.

Robinson informed the CARICOM Secretariat and the Jamaican government of his intention, according to a document prepared by the regional organisation headquartered in Guyana that was leaked.

The confidential document stated that CARICOM member states have been informed of the development and asked to consider the nomination of a suitably qualified candidate for the November 2023 elections to the ICJ.

The issue has been brought to the attention of CARICOM foreign ministers, who are scheduled to meet on May 18 and 19.

The International Court of Justice is comprised of fifteen judges elected to nine-year terms by the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Security Council.

In February 2015, Robinson, aged 78, was elected to the UN court.

Locally, he held a variety of public positions, including legal advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, senior assistant attorney general, director of the Division of International Law, and deputy solicitor general.

He joined the United Nations in 1972 and served as Jamaica's representative to the Sixth (Legal) Committee of the United Nations General Assembly for the following 26 years.

He was a leader on a number of issues, such as the definition of aggression and the draught statute for the international criminal court.

From 1981 to 1998, he led Jamaica's negotiating delegations for treaties on extradition, mutual legal assistance, maritime delimitation, and investment promotion and protection.

From 2008 to 2011, he served as President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, a position for which he is widely regarded.

He is the father of Julian Robinson, a serving member of parliament for the Opposition; Tracy Robinson, a Rhodes scholar and deputy dean of the law faculty at the University of the West Indies, Mona; and Graham Robinson, the senior vice president and president of Stanley Black & Decker's industrial division, who was named to Forbes' inaugural CEO Next list of 50 individuals on the "verge of running America's most influential and respected companies" last year.