After the nomination of Nawaf Salam to Lebanon’s premiership, the presidency of the International Court of Justice is expected to pass to current Vice President Julia Sebutinde, who has consistently voted against measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza. 

The 70-year-old Ugandan judge is currently serving her second nine-year term at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), having been re-elected by the UN General Assembly and Security Council in 2020. Notably, she is the first African woman to serve on the court and assumed the role of vice president in February 2024.

Sebutinde graduated from Makerere University with a bachelors of laws in 1977 and later graduated from Edinburgh Law School in 1991. In 1996 she was appointed Judge of the High Court of Uganda, the third-highest court in the country, where she presided over cases of corruption in several parts of the Ugandan government.

She was appointed in 2005 to the United Nations Special Court for Sierra Leone, which prosecuted individuals who committed violations of international and Sierra Leonean law during the country's civil war.