Bimal Patel sworn in as judge of International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

United Nations: India's Bimal Patel has been sworn in as judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).

He took the oath of office on Thursday at the tribunal in Hamburg, starting a nine-year term on the highest judicial body for the law of the sea and continuing India's presence there.

Neeru Chadha, who was a vice president of the tribunal, completed her term on Wednesday.

Patel, an international jurist, was on the UN’s International Law Commission and was the vice chancellor of the Rashtriya Raksha University in Gujarat when he was elected a judge of the tribunal last year by the countries that have signed the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Patel received 115 votes out of the 168 valid votes in the election held at the United Nations in New York.

There are 172 countries that have acceded to the UNCLOS, which created the ITLOS to rule on disputes regarding seas and oceans and interpret the law of the sea.

The tribunal has 21 judges who reflect global geographic distribution, and their terms are staggered. Last year four other judges were elected alongside Patel.

The other four who were sworn in with him are Sylvia Ama Adusu of Ghana, George Rodrigo Bandeira Galindo of Brazil, Slim Laghmani of Tunisia, and Lan-Anh Thi Nguyen of Viet Nam.

Patel has PhDs in International Law from Leiden University in the Netherlands and Jaipur National University.

Among the various offices he has held is membership of the National Security Advisory Board of the National Security Council Secretariat.

ITLOS is an independent judicial body based in Hamburg, Germany, that settles maritime disputes and interprets the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

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