UN appoints Olufemi Elias as criminal tribunal registrar

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced the appointment of Olufemi Elias of Nigeria as the Registrar of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, with effect from 1 January 2017.

Mr Elias will succeed John Hocking of Australia, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his service, including his instrumental role in setting up the Mechanism and overseeing the construction of its new premises in Arusha, Tanzania.

Mr Elias has been serving as the Executive Secretary of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal since July 2016, a position which he also held from 2008 to 2013. He was the Legal Adviser and a Director at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) from 2013 to 2016 and Senior Legal Officer at the OPCW from 2005 to 2008.

He worked in legal positions at the United Nations Compensation Commission between 1998 and 2005.

Mr Elias is an associate member of the Institut de Droit International. A member of the Nigerian Bar, he holds a PhD from the University of London, a Master of Law from the University of Cambridge and a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence from the University of Oxford.