Christine, Baroness Van den Wyngaert (born 2 April 1952) is a Belgian jurist and judge. She served as international and comparative criminal law expert from 2009 to 2018 as a judge on the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals f ...

. She served in the Trial Division Chamber. On 8 July 2013, Van den Wyngaert was ennobled by King

Albert II of Belgium , house = Belgium , father = Leopold III of Belgium , mother = Astrid of Sweden , birth_date = , birth_place = Stuyvenberg Castle, Laeken, Brussels, Belgium , death_date = , death_place = , signature = Albert II of Belgium Signat ...

as a baroness for her services as a judge. From 2003 to 2005 she was a Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and from 2000 to 2002 an ad hoc judge on the

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Career

Early career

*1974: Law degree from

Vrije Universiteit Brussel The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) () is a Dutch and English-speaking research university located in Brussels, Belgium.The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is one of the five universities officially recognised by the Flemish government. listof all ...

, Belgium; *1970s: Alternative career as singer-songwriter, performing (among others) with Ferre Grignard and

Wannes Van de Velde Wannes Van de Velde (29 April 1937 – 10 November 2008), born Willy Cecile Johannes Van de Velde, in Antwerp, was a Flemish folk singer, guitarist, musician, poet, puppeteer and artist. He is most famous for his songs ''Ik Wil deze Nacht in de ...

, and resulting in a Long Play recording; *1979: PhD in law, University of Brussels, Belgium; *1980: PhD thesis awarded with the Henri Rolin-prize; *From 1985: Professor criminal law at the

University of Antwerp The University of Antwerp ( nl, Universiteit Antwerpen) is a major Belgian university located in the city of Antwerp. The official abbreviation is ''UA'', but ''UAntwerpen'' is more recently used. The University of Antwerp has about 20,000 stud ...

; *Visiting

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of the Centre for European Legal Studies (1994–1996) and of the Research Centre for International Law (1996–1997) at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

; *2001: Visiting professor at the

University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

; *2000–2002: Ad hoc Judge at the

in the Yerodia case;

Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, 2003–2009

*2003–2005: Ad litem Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia;

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

Biographical Note Judge Christine VAN DEN WYNGAERT
/ref> *From 17 November 2005 (term till 2009): Permanent Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Judge of the International Criminal Court, 2009–2018

In March 2012, the Presidency of the ICC announced that Van Den Wyngaert and her fellow judges Kuniko Ozaki and Chile Eboe-Osuji would form Trial Chamber V, which was responsible for the prosecutor's investigation in Kenya. By April 2013, Van Den Wyngaert asked to be excused from hearing a crimes-against-humanity case against

Uhuru Kenyatta Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (born 26 October 1961) is a Kenyan politician who served as the fourth president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022. Kenyatta was chosen by Daniel Arap Moi as his preferred successor, but Kenyatta was defeated by opposition le ...

and

William Ruto William Kipchirchir Samoei Arap Ruto (born 21 December 1966) is a Kenyan politician who is serving as the fifth and current president of Kenya since 13 September 2022. Prior to becoming president, he served as the 11th deputy president of Ken ...

after questioning the conduct of the prosecution under

Fatou Bensouda Fatou Bom Bensouda (; ; born 31 January 1961) is a Gambian lawyer and former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). She served as Prosecutor from June 2012 to June 2021, after having served as a Deputy Prosecutor in charge of the ...

. When Congolese

warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

Germain Katanga Germain Katanga (; born 28 April 1978), also known as Simba (), is a former leader of the Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri (FRPI), an armed group in the Ituri Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).International Criminal Court ( ...

was convicted in March 2014 of being an accessory to one count of

crime against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

and war crimes including murder and pillage – only the second conviction in the 12-year history of the ICC –, Van den Wyngaert partially disagreed with her two fellow judges Fatoumata Dembele Diarra and Bruno Cotte. In her

dissenting opinion A dissenting opinion (or dissent) is an opinion in a legal case in certain legal systems written by one or more judges expressing disagreement with the majority opinion of the court which gives rise to its judgment. Dissenting opinions are norm ...

, she argued Katanga's trial had lasted too long and that he should have been acquitted in 2013 along with his co-accused Mathieu Ngudjolo.Thomas Escritt (7 March 2014)
Congo warlord's conviction brings relief to international court
''

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''. She also held that Katanga was not intentionally responsible for the crimes and said it was unfair to convict him as an accessory when he had originally been charged with being central to the crimes' commission. In June 2014 she wrote a dissenting opinion during the pre-trial of the case ''The Prosecutor v.

Laurent Gbagbo Koudou Laurent Gbagbo
, FPI website . ( Charles Blé Goudé'', holding she was unable to join her colleagues in their decision to confirm the charges against Laurent Gbagbo and that in her view that the evidence was still insufficient.

Other activities

Van den Wyngaert is on the steering committee for The Crimes Against Humanity Initiative, which was launched in 2008 to study the need for a new comprehensive global convention on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity. She has also served as rapporteur for the

International Law Association The International Law Association (ILA) is a non-profit organisation based in Great Britain that — according to its constitution — promotes "the study, clarification and development of international law" and "the furtherance of international ...

on extradition and human rights and a general reporter for the Association Internationale de Droit Pénal in Budapest relating to international cooperation to combat organized crime.

Recognition

*2001:

doctor honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad ho ...

at the

University of Uppsala Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

; *2006: Human Rights prize from Liga voor Mensenrechten. VRT news site 10 December 2006
Chris Van Den Wyngaert awarded
/ref> *2009:

at the University of Brussels (2009).

References

Bibliography

A list of publications by Van Den Wyngaert up to 2004 is enclosed i
CV Judge Van den Wijngaert
at the Foreign Affairs Belgium website.

As author

* Van Den Wyngaert, C. ''Political Offence Exception to Extradition: The Delicate Problem of Balancing the Rights of the Individual and the International Public Order''. Kluwer Academic, 1980, . *(In

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

:) Van Den Wyngaert, C. ''Strafrecht en strafprocesrecht in hoofdlijnen''. 1991. 11th revised edition: ''Strafrecht en strafprocesrecht in hoofdlijnen''. Gompel&Svacina, 2019, .

As (co-)editor

* Van Den Wyngaert, C. et al. ''Criminal procedure systems in the European Community''. Butterworths, 1993, . * Van Den Wyngaert, C. et al. ''International Criminal Law and Procedure''. Dartmouth - Ashgate, 1996, . * Van Den Wyngaert, C. et al. ''International Criminal Law: A Collection of International and European Instruments''. Brill Academic Publishers, **1996,
description
at

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); **2000, ; **2005, .