Anita UÅ¡acka

Anita Ušacka ( born April 26, 1952 in Riga, Latvian SSR) is a Latvian judge. She was a judge at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia. Since 2003 he is a judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Private life and education

Ušacka was on April 26, 1952 in Riga, geborten the only daughter of Arturs Ušackis and Anna Krontāle. She has two older brothers, Ivars (1944 ) and Juris (1948 ). Ušacka has a son, Alexey Ušackis (1980). She is married to Peter Wilkitzki.

Ušacka spent her childhood in Riga, Latvia, where he attended elementary school and high school. In 1970 she began her studies at the Law Faculty of the University of Latvia. She received her degree in 1975. Ušacka doctorate at the Law Faculty of the Moscow State University and later in 1980 he received his Ph.D. ( candidate ). Her thesis, which she defended in January 1980, dealt with legal aspects of the management of industries in Latvia.

1991 Ušacka studied human rights at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. The academic year 1993/1994 she spent at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, United States, where she studied comparative law and human rights. A research scholarship took in 1994 to the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg, Germany.

Ušacka received an honorary doctorate from Lewis and Clark Law School in the United States in 2006. In her inaugural speech, she pointed with emphasis on the important role of establishing itself ends worldwide system of law and protection of human rights.

Professional career

Since completing her studies in 1975 Ušacka is academic. She began her academic career as a research assistant at the University of Latvia. in the Department of the introduction to the law and then went through the academic career (1992, Doctor of Law (Latvia );. 1993 lecturer). In 1999 she got a teaching position at the Riga Graduate School of Law, and in 2002 she was appointed professor at the University of Latvia. During her tenure at the University of Latvia took her there one a course on human rights. Later, she also taught temporarily at the Robert Schuman University (Strasbourg ), where she gave a course about Latvian constitutional history and a human rights course, and at Lewis and Clark Law School, where she taught in 2002 and 2003 Comparative Constitutional Law.

In 1993, two years after the Republic of Latvia declared its independence from the USSR, the Latvian branch was built by UNICEF (LNC ). From 1994 to 1996 Ušacka was the executive director of this branch and turned her attention particularly on the rights of children in the national and international context. It was also one of their tasks is to monitor the compliance of Latvian legislation with the requirements of the international children's rights convention.

In June 1994, the Latvian Parliament amended ( the Saeima ), the Law on the Constitutional Court of Latvia, and built the first Constitutional Court. 1996, on a proposal from the Members of Parliament, Ušacka was voted one of the first six judges of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia. Her term was ten years.

Ušacka headed 1998-2001 cooperation program between Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College (USA) and the Faculty of Law of the University of Latvia. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Information Agency promoted the cooperation with 120,000 U.S. dollars.

The Republic of Latvia suggested Ušacka 2002 as a candidate for the office of judge at the newly built International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, before. The Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court chose it as one of the 18 judges ( and one of seven women) in February 2003 in this office. She was at that time the only judge of the Eastern European group. 43 candidates were proposed for the 18 judge positions. On 11 March 2011, the 18 judges were sworn in as the first in this office.

After the selection of judges, the President of the Assembly of States Parties drew lots for all 18 judges to determine the first term of (3, 6 or 9 years). These different terms were necessary to ensure a three-year rotation of judges later ( the tenure of judges is usually 9 years). Ušacka 's first term lasted three years. In 2006 she was re- elected for another full term of 9 years. This will end in 2015.

After taking office in 2003, the judges of the International Criminal Court were appointed to the various departments of the court. Ušacka belonged to until the year 2009, the Trial Division. From 2007 to 2009 she worked for a time in the first chamber of the Pre-Trial Division. As a judge in this chamber, it confirmed the charges against Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, a case of the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo concerns. Furthermore this Chamber issued the first arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court against a head of state in the case against Omar Al Bashir, based on the situation in Darfur, Sudan. Since 2009 Ušacka belongs to the Appeals Division of the Court, which she was president from April 2011 to March 2012. She was presiding judge in various appeal proceedings before the Appeals Chamber.

Activities

Ušacka has held countless lectures and publishes in the field of law, especially in public and administrative law, international and comparative law and on human rights. Recent publications are:

Ušacka is an active member of the International Association of Women Judges, the mittrug their candidacy for the International Criminal Court since 1997. They often actively contributed to their conferences, for example, they spoke in 1998 about " The child as a witness, his legal status in the Latvian legislation" in Ottawa, Canada. In May 2006, she led the discussion on " An independent judiciary: culture, religion, gender equality, politics " at the 8th Biennial Conference of the Association in Sydney, Australia ". Since 2004 is Ušacka member of the European Group of Public Law. Ušacka has also frequently participated in conferences, organized by the Centre for Public Law in Athens, Greece, as well as at countless conferences on the topic " International Criminal Law ".

Research priorities

Ušacka is considered an expert on the issues of developing a post-Soviet legal system in Latvia with a focus on public law, procedural law and the process-related fundamental rights. Another focus is on human rights and its international reaction with a particular focus on the rights of women and children.