25/06/2013
The ITLOS has named Thomas Mensah, the first ITLOS head, as president of the 5-member arbitral tribunal that is hoped to settle the two countries' dispute over portions of the South China Sea.
Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesman Raul Hernandez, who confirmed this Tuesday, June 25, said ITLOS president Shunji Yanai appointed Mensah last June 21. The ITLOS informed the Philippines about this on the same day.
Mensah will take this post after the arbitral tribunal's former president, Chris Pinto of Sri Lanka, resigned due to conflict of interest. Pinto's wife is Filipino.
Now 81 years old, Mensah served as the first president of ITLOS from 1996 to 1999. He is currently the deputy chairman of the International Foundation of the Law of the Sea.
He worked for over two decades at the International Maritime Organization in London, as legal counsel and assistant secretary general. He also taught at the World Maritime University for almost a decade.
Read more at Rappler
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