Judge Sanji Mmasenono MONAGENG (Botswana)

Judge as of 11 March 2009, for a term of nine years. First Vice-President of the Court as of 11 March 2012 for a term of three years. Assigned to the Appeals Division. Elected from the African Group of States, list B.

Judge Monageng (1950) served as a High Court judge in the Kingdom of Swaziland, responsible for criminal and civil cases as well as constitutional matters before joining the International Criminal Court as a Commonwealth Expert. Prior to this, she served as a judge of the High Court of the Republic of the Gambia in the same capacity. She started her legal career as a Magistrate in Botswana. Judge Monageng has broad experience in the promotion and protection of human rights issues, having been a member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, appointed by the African Union, between 2003 and 2009, and was appointed as the Commission’s chairperson in November 2007. She has also chaired one of the special mechanisms of the Commission, the Follow-up Committee on torture, inhumane, degrading and other treatment. Judge Monageng has given a number of lectures on human rights issues, criminal law, humanitarian law and many other areas of the law. She also served as Deputy Chief Litigation Officer in the United Nations Observer Mission to South Africa in 1994. Judge Monageng served as the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Law Society of Botswana for many years. She possesses expertise in women’s human rights issues, indigenous peoples and communities, torture and children, among others. She is a member of many international organisations including the International Association of Women Judges, the International Commission of Jurists and the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law.

Judge Monageng has sat on numerous national, regional and international boards.