The Lebanese judge Nawaf Salam was elected President of the International Court of Justice for a three-year term, becoming the second Arab to head the court since its establishment 78 years ago, after the former Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of its Constitutional Court, Mohamed Bedjaoui.

Nawaf Salam, President of the International Court of Justice

Members of the International Court of Justice elected the Lebanese judge Nawaf Salam as President of the court yesterday, Tuesday, in The Hague, for a period of three years, succeeding the American judge Joan Donoghue.

The official account of the International Court of Justice on the "X" platform published a statement saying that Salam's fellow members of the court elected him as President.

Nawaf Salam posted a tweet on his X account in this regard saying: "Being elected President of the International Court of Justice is a great responsibility in achieving international justice and upholding international law. The first thing that also comes to my mind at this moment is my constant concern that my city Beirut returns to being the mother of laws as its title is, and that we succeed as Lebanese in establishing a state of law in our country and that justice prevails among its people."

Nawaf Salam was born in 1953, earned a PhD in Political Science from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris in 1992, holds a master's degree in Law from Harvard Law School, and a PhD in History from the Sorbonne University.

Nawaf Salam worked as a lecturer in contemporary history at the French Sorbonne University, a visiting researcher at the Weatherhead Center for International Relations at Harvard University, alongside practicing law.

Nawaf Salam served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Lebanon to the United Nations in New York from 2007 to 2017, and was awarded the French Legion of Honour medal at the officer rank in 2012.

Nawaf Salam represented his country in the Security Council and presided over its sessions between May 2010 and September 2011. Another Lebanese, the former Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fouad Ammoun, was a judge between 1965 and 1976 in the court and was elected its Vice President.

In February 2018, Nawaf Salam joined the International Court of Justice consisting of 15 judges, elected by the Security Council and the United Nations General Assembly as the main judicial organ of the international organization, specializing in settling disputes between states, as the highest judicial authority in the world.

Salam was one of the three Arab judges at The Hague Court to examine a lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel accusing it of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and his name has repeatedly been mentioned for the position of Prime Minister of Lebanon.