Japan will field Chikako Taya, a veteran female public prosecutor, in the election for ad litem judges at the United Nations tribunal for crimes committed against humanity in the former Yugoslavia, U.N. sources said Monday.
If elected to the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, or ICTY, the 55-year-old Taya would be the third Japanese to become a judge at an international court, after Shigeru Oda and Soji Yamamoto. The ICTY is based in The Hague.
Both Oda and Yamamoto are men. Oda serves on the International Court of Justice in The Hague and Yamamoto is on the International Tribunal for the Law of Sea in Hamburg.