Professor Piotr Hofmański elected President of the International Criminal Court

70 years ago, Raphael Lemkin celebrated the entry into force of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948. However, he did not rest with this achievement, but set himself another goal of his solitary struggle - the creation of a permanent international criminal tribunal. Unfortunately, he failed to achieve this goal, which was due to many factors. Only half a century after the Convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly, in 1998, the international community adopted the Rome Statute, and - as a consequence - four years later the International Criminal Court was established. Lemkin's dream has come true. In 2015, a judge from Poland was elected to the Tribunal. Six years later, the same judge became the President of the Tribunal. It is a great distinction and honour for Poland, also considering the fact that one of the founders of modern International Criminal Law was Raphael Lemkin, and his compatriot today heads one of the most important global judicial institutions.

Congratulations to Professor Piotr Hofmański for being appointed the President of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Undoubtedly, this is a good reason for the entire legal community in Poland to be pleased. We would like to wish Judge Hofmański a lot of professional satisfaction. We hope that the world will become a little better during this period of time.

The Editors of "The Voice of Law"