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Press Release . Communiqué de presse
(Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document)
The Hague, 19 November 2003
CT/P.I.S./803-e
JUDGE FLORENCE MUMBA SWORN-IN AS A MEMBER OF THE APPEALS CHAMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR RWANDA
Today, Wednesday 19 November 2003, Judge Florence Mumba (Zambia) was sworn in as member of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She made her Solemn Declaration through a video-link established between the ICTY seat in The Hague and the ICTR seat in Arusha (Tanzania).
BACKGROUND
Following the departure of Judge David Hunt (Australia), effective 17 November, the ICTY President, Judge Theodor Meron, assigned Judge Florence Mumba to the Appeals Chamber. As with all members of the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY, Judge Mumba automatically became a member of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, for which she had to be
sworn-in.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Judge Florence Ndepele Mwachande Mumba was born on 17 December 1948 at Mufulira in Zambia.
She began her national career in 1973 as an assigned counsel at a trial court before becoming an assigned counsel at a trial/appeals court in 1975 and finally an assigned counsel at the Supreme Court in 1977. Judge Mumba became the Director of the Department of Legal Aid in 1978 and was appointed to sit on the bench at a trial court in 1980 before becoming President of several
ad hoc national investigating commissions. In 1989 she was appointed Ombudsman, a post which she held until her appointment to the Supreme Court of Zambia in 1997.
On the international scene, Judge Mumba represented Zambia at the Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985 and at the African Regional Conference on Women in Senegal in 1994. Within the International Commission of Jurists, of which she has been a member since 1993, she participated in the work of the Committee of Legal Experts for the Protocol to the African Charter on the
Establishment of an African Court on Human Rights organised in South Africa in 1995. Finally, Judge Mumba took part in the Sixth World Conference of Ombudsmen as African Regional Director and Vice-President of the International Institute of Ombudsmen held in Argentina in 1996.
She has also been a member of various national and international commissions such as the Commission of the Law Development of Zambia from 1976 to 1979, the Council of Law Reporting Editorial Board of Zambia from 1981 to 1983, the Council of Legal Education from 1985 to 1990, the Electoral Commission from 1992 to 1994 and the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women from
1992 to 1995.
Elected Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on 20 May 1997, Florence Ndepele Mwachande Mumba took the oath on 17 November that year.
As a Trial Chamber member, she sat on the bench in the Kupreskic et al. and presided over the following trials: The Prosecutor Vs Drazen Erdemovic, The Prosecutor Vs Anto Furundzija, The Prosecutor Vs Dragojulb Kunarac et al., The Prosecutor Vs Milan Simic and the Prosecutor Vs Blagoje Simic et al. As Appeals Chamber Judge, she sat on various cases: The Prosecutor Vs Dusko
Tadic, the contempts proceedings instituted against Milan Vujin and The Prosecutor Vs Zlatko Aleksovski
Judge Florence Mumba was the Vice-President of the ICTY between November 1999 and November 2001.
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