Who is Phoebe Okowa? The newly elected ICJ judge and her opinions on Israel-Palestine

In a vote held on 12 November 2025, Phoebe Nyawade Okowa, a prominent Kenyan international-law scholar, was elected a judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). 

She becomes the first Kenyan, the eighth woman, and one of only a handful of Africans to sit as a judge on the UN’s principal judicial organ.

Okowa most recently represented Namibia as counsel in the ICJ advisory-opinion proceedings on the obligations of Israel in relation to the presence and activities of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa.

In her presentation before the ICJ in May, Okowa argued that Israel’s legal ban on Unrwa violated its international obligations under the UN Charter. 

“The conduct entails a blatant refusal to co-operate with the UN, to facilitate Unrwa’s work, and to respect its lawfully established mandate,” she said.

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