Nationality: Costa Rica (Latin American and Caribbean States)
Term: 11 March 2003 - 31 August 2012
Elected from: List A on 7 February 2003
Biography
Judge as of 11 March 2003, for a term of nine years. Elected from the Latin American and Caribbean Group of States (GRULAC), list A.
Judge Odio Benito (1939) has comprehensive practical and academic experience in the field of human rights and international humanitarian law. A Professor Emeritus at the University of Costa Rica, she was awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by St. Edward's University in 2004. Judge Odio Benito has been a member of the Costa Rican Group to the Permanent Court of Arbitration since 2000. She was Second Vice-President of Costa Rica from 1998 to 2002, and served twice as Minister of Justice of Costa Rica, from 1978 to 1982 and from 1990 to 1993. Judge Odio Benito was a member of the Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, the main subsidiary body of the Commission on Human Rights, from 1980 to 1983. She is the author and co-author of several publications on human rights, international humanitarian law and international criminal law. From 1983 to 1986 she was Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Sub-Commission on Discrimination and Intolerance based on Religion or Creed, and wrote a major report on the elimination of religious discrimination and creed published by the United Nations in 1986. From 1993 to 1995, Judge Odio Benito served as Vice-President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), where she was a judge until 1998. In 2000 she was elected President of the Working Group on the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In March, 2003, Judge Odio Benito was elected the Second Vice-President of the Court for a term of three years.
