The United Nations Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan has appointed Ms. Andrésia Vaz from Senegal as a Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Judge Vaz replaces Judge Laïty Kama, also from Senegal, who passed away on 6 May 2001.

The Secretary-General announced the appointment on 31 May 2001 in a letter to the President of the Tribunal Judge Navanethem Pillay. The tenure of office of the new Judge will be for the remainder of the late Judge Kama's term of office. In his letter, Mr. Annan said that the decision was reached after consultation with the Presidents of the UN Security Council and of the General Assembly.

Judge Vaz, 57, began her career as an Examining Judge of the Tribunal (Première Instance de Dakar). After that she was President of the Labour Tribunal in Saint Louis, Senegal; Chief of the Examining Judges in Dakar; Vice President of the “Tribunal de Premiere Instance de Dakar”; and a Judge at the Court of Appeal and at the Supreme Court.

In 1992 she became first President of the Court of Appeal and a year later she was appointed first President of the National Electoral Commission of Senegal. She later became President of the Court of Senegal. In 1997 she became first President of Supreme Court. Ms. Vaz has participated in several conferences, including the International Union of Magistrates, International Federation of Women Lawyers “World Peace Through the Law”; the International Commission of Jurists, and the Conference of Chief Judges of the Commonwealth and Judges of Appeal Courts. Judge Vaz was a Tutor at “l’Ecole Nationale de la l’Administration et de Magistrature du Senegal” until 1991. She is an Associate Member of the International Commission of Jurists and Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, in The Netherlands. Ms. Vaz is a graduate of the National Centre for Judicial Studies (Centre National d‘Etudes Juridique) of France (1969).