Jamaican in stiff battle for ICJ seat

Jamaican jurist Patrick Robinson is locked in an intense competition to be selected to the panel of  judges to serve the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
    
The United Nations has been struggling to elect a full slate of  judges, failing to reach consensus despite six rounds of voting on Thursday and Friday.
    
Mr Robinson is up against Susana Ruiz Cerutti of  Argentina.
    
There has been a break in the proceedings, which will resume on November 17.  
    
Mr Robinson's son, Member of  Parliament for South Eastern St Andrew, Julian Robinson, has expressed uncertainty over how the gridlock will end when voting resumes, explaining that "the only way the deadlock can be broken is if, on the Security Council side, a couple of members decide to switch their vote, or, on the General Assembly side, it would require a larger number of countries.

Given that uncertainty, he suggested it could several more rounds of voting before the deadlock is broken.

The ICJ hears disputes among members of  the United Nations. Jamaica has never had a representative on the panel of  judges.

Judge Patrick Lipton Robinson is a former member and later President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

He was first elected to the Tribunal by the UN General Assembly on November 17, 1998, and was then elected President of the Tribunal by his fellow judges on November 4, 2008.