On this day

On March 11, ...
... 2003 (5 years ago today), at The Hague, Netherlands, 7 women and 11 men, representing 18 countries, were sworn in as the 1st judges of the International Criminal Court, a newly established permanent tribunal charged with adjudicating the world's most heinous crimes. (photo credit) A 2d round of elections was held in 2006. Women serving as ICC judges today are: Akua Kuenyehia of Ghana, 1st Vice-President; Elizabeth Odio Benito of Costa Rica; Navanethem Pillay of South Africa; Fatoumata Dembele Diarra of Mali; Anita Ušacka of Latvia; Sylvia Steiner of Brazil; and Ekaterina Trendafilova of Bulgaria. As posted above, the from-the-inception inclusion of women sets the ICC apart from other tribunals, among them the WTO Appellate Body.
... 1708 (300 years ago today), a bill intended to reorganize the Scottish Militia failed as Queen Anne withheld Royal Assent. The act marked the last time that British monarch has vetoed a law passed by Parliament.

On September 15, ...

... 1978, British antiterrorist police arrested a woman working as a mechanics instructor in a London garage, charging that she was "one of the most wanted members" of Germany's Baader-Meinhof gang. Astrid Proll (left) was suspected of involvement in murders and of membership in that group and its "successor, the Red Army Faction." Initially fighting extradition to Germany on murder charges, eventually Proll returned and stood trial on charges of bank robbery and falsifying documents. In February 1980 she was sentenced to 5-1/2 years yet released immediately, having received credit for time already served.
... 1939, Elizabeth Odio Benito (right) was born in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. She grew up in the country's capital, San José. Encouraged by an uncle to follow the family tradition of lawyering, in 1964 she received a master's degree from the University of Costa Rica, eventually becoming a professor, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and interim President there. Her extensive work for human rights included membership on U.N. Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and service as Special Rapporteur to the U.N. Sub-Commission on Discrimination and Intolerance based on Religion or Creed. Of her tenure as Vice President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia from 1993-1995, she told Women's Human Rights net that she, along with then-President Gabrielle Kirk McDonald and the Office of the Prosecutor,

undertook the task of making visible the sexual and gender violence that women suffer both in 'peacetime' and in international and internal armed conflicts -- a task left undone since World War II. We also made visible that rape and other sexual abuses were used as weapons of war, as means of terror ....

Odio Benito is now a Judge on the International Criminal Court.