News Release

5 November 2007

MIRIAM ADDRESSES UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago delivered an address before the United Nations General Assembly last 2 November 2007 (Philippine time), during the International Law Commission (ILC) Week in New York.
The ILC Week is part of the General Assembly’s 62nd Session, and is the venue to discuss developments in international law.
Senate President Manny Villar, Majority Leader Kiko Pangilinan, and Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. sent Santiago their best wishes before she left for New York.
Santiago, chair of both the Committee on Energy and the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Senate, as well as an international law expert, spoke before the General Assembly on the issues of shared natural resources and reservation to treaties.
As the Philippine candidate to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Santiago ’s participation in the ILC Week served to introduce her to the international law community and highlight her intellectual capacity and grasp of international law issues.
Last 20 July 2007, Santiago was nominated to the ICJ by the Philippine National Group composed of Supreme Court Associate Justice Consuelo Ynares Santiago, retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Florentino Feliciano, then Integrated Bar of the Philippines National President Atty. Jose Vicente Salazar, and University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law Dean Alfredo Benipayo.
Santiago ’s candidature was endorsed by Chief Justice Reynato Puno, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the Philippine Bar Association, the Philippine Women Judges Association Inc., the Philippine Association of Law Schools, and the Philippine Association of Law Professors.
Santiago ’s nomination to the ICJ was announced by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during the ASEAN Ministers’ meeting last 30 July 2007.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo has ordered all ambassadors and consul generals abroad to support the Philippine campaign for Santiago to the ICJ.
Should Santiago get elected to the ICJ, she will be the second Filipino to serve in the World Court. Supreme Court Chief Justice Cesar Bengzon served as ICJ judge from 1967 to 1976.
Santiago will also be the first female Asian judge in the ICJ. She will also be the second female ICJ judge, next to Rosalyn Higgins from the United Kingdom. Higgins currently serves as President of the ICJ.
Five seats in the ICJ will be available in 5 February 2009. Elections will be held at the UN in New York late 2008. A candidate needs to get at least majority vote in both the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council, voting simultaneously but separately.
The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. The Court decides two types of cases: (1) legal disputes between States submitted to Court (contentious cases); and (2) requests for advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by United Nations organs and specialized agencies (advisory opinions).
Santiago is banking on her long and distinguished career in government and her strong record of academic excellence to take her to the World Court.
Before her term as senator, she served as presiding judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, Commissioner of Immigration, and Secretary of Agrarian Reform. She was awarded the 1988 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service (the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize) for her work as Immigration Commissioner.
She has a Doctor of Science of Law degree from the University of Michigan, where she was a Barbour Scholar and Dewitt Fellow. She was also a Visiting Law Fellow at Oxford University and a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at Cambridge University. She also worked as professor of law at the University for the Philippines for more than a decade. She is listed in the 2000 United Nations roster of eminent and highly qualified experts in international law and is the author of a number of books on international law and international relations. Photo by Elmer Cato of the Philippine Mission to the United Nations