Kenyan professor Phoebe Okowa has been elected to the International Law Commission for five years.
Okowa was elected with 162 votes and becomes the first African Woman to be elected to the Commission.
She will be in the commission from 2023 to 2027.
The International Law Commission (ILC) is a body of experts responsible for helping develop and codify international law
It is composed of 34 individuals recognized for their expertise and qualifications in international law, who are elected by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) every five years.
In a statement on Saturday, Okowa said she was pleased beyond words, honored and humbled.
“I am profoundly grateful to member states for their confidence in me. Throughout the campaign experience I have remained conscious that the ILC is a subsidiary organ of the UN that is at its costs effective working in collaboration with the sixth committee,” she said.
Okowa said she is looking forward to working with the other members of the commission.
"...and those on the sixth committee as the commission continues its vital work in responding to the defining challenges of our generation,| she said.
"This is by any standards an outstanding mandate, thank you to everyone involved."
Foreign Affairs PS Macharia Kamau said Kenya has enjoyed a series of important victories in elections and senior appointments in international organizations and institutions in the last couple of years.
"This is indicative of the prowess of Kenya’s Foreign service and status that the country now enjoys in the world. It is also indicative of caliber of candidates that Kenya produces," he said.
The government of Kenya had nominated Professor Okowa for the UN International Law Commission 2021.
Okowa is an acclaimed legal scholar, with a distinguished career in Public International Law.
The term of office of the 34 members of the International Law Commission for the 2017-2021 (extended to 2022) quinquennium will expire at the end of 2022.
The election of the members of the Commission for a five-year term beginning on 1 January 2023 (until 31 December 2027) took place, by secret ballot, at the 32nd meeting of the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session, held on 12 November 2021.
Members of the International Law Commission enjoy the status of experts on mission.