Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez
Quick Facts
Biography
Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez is a jurist and judge from Costa Rica, and a current judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Before he was a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and an ambassador of Costa Rica to the Netherlands.
Early life and education
Godinez was born on the 3 April 1971 in Costa Rica. Between 1983 and 1987 he attended the San Carlos High school. In the year from 1988 he began his studies of law at the University of Costa Rica from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1994. Between 1997 and 1998 he expanded up on his studies at the University of Oxford, where he obtained Magister Juris in European and Comparative Law.
Professional career
Since 2000 he was employed at the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Worshipof Costa Rica as an advisor in international law, a post he kept until 2014. Between 2005 and 2015 he was entrusted the legal defense in several cases by the Government of Costa Rica. Between 2014 and 2018, he was the ambassador of Costa Rica to the Netherlands. There, he also was involved in preparing the Costa Rican defense against Nicaragua in the case about the invasion of Calero island before the ICC. Since 2005 he was a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Also between 2014 and 2018 he was the representative of Costa Rica before the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). He served as the vice president tot the Assembly of the State Parties to the Rome Statute between 2016 and 2018. Since 2019, he was a professor for international law at the University of Peace in San Jose, Costa Rica. Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez also had a column at the newspaper La Nacion in Costa Rica.
Judge at the International Criminal Court
On the 21 December 2020, Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez was elected in the fourth round to the International Criminal Court by the United Nations General Assembly. In March 2023, Russia initiated an investigation against the judges of the ICC Ugalde Godinez, Tomoko Akane and Rosario Salvatore Aitala after the ICC issued an arrest warrant against its president Vladimir Putin.