Nationality: Belgium (Western European and other States)
Term: 11 March 2009 - 10 March 2018
Assumed full-time duty: 1 September 2009
Elected from: List A on 20 January 2009
Previously assigned to: Appeals Division (11 March 2009 - 10 March 2018)
Biography
Judge as of 11 March 2009, for a term of nine years. Assigned to the Appeals Division. Elected from the Western European and Others Group of States, list A.
Judge Van den Wyngaert (1952) graduated from Brussels University in 1974 and obtained a PhD in International Criminal Law in 1979. She was a professor of law at the University of Antwerp (1985 - 2005) where she taught criminal law, criminal procedure, comparative criminal law and international criminal law. She authored numerous publications in all these fields. She was a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge (Centre for European Legal Studies (1994 - 1996), Research Centre for International Law (1996 ‑1997)) and a visiting professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Her merits as an academic were recognised in the form of a Doctorate Honoris Causa, awarded by the University of Uppsala, Sweden (2001). In 2010, she was awarded a doctorate honoris causa by the University of Brussels, Belgium. Her merits as an academic were recognised in the form of five Doctorates Honoris Causa, awarded by the University of Uppsala, Sweden (2001), the University of Brussels (2010), Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Ohio (2013), the University of Maastricht (2013) and the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa (2018).
Judge Van den Wyngaert gained expertise in various governmental organisations. She was a member of the Criminal Procedure Reform Commission in Belgium (Commission Franchimont) (1991 - 1998) and served as an expert for the European Union in various criminal law projects. She has extensive international judicial experience. She served in the International Court of Justice as an ad hoc judge in the Arrest Warrant Case (2000 - 2002) and was elected as a judge in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia where she served for more than five years (2003 – 2009).
In 2013, the Flemish Government awarded her a golden medal for her achievements in international criminal law. In 2014, she was elected Vice President of the International Association of Penal Law. Judge Van den Wyngaert was granted the title of Baroness by the King of Belgium for her merits as an academic and as an international judge.
She was an expert for the two major scientific organisations in her field, the International Law Association and the International Association of Penal Law, which elected her to the position of Vice President at the Rio de Janeiro Congress of Penal Law in 2014. She was an observer of the Human Rights League at the trial of Helen Passtoors in Johannesburg in 1986 and made human rights a focal point in her teachings and writings throughout her career. In 2006, she was awarded the Prize of the Human Rights League.
