Elizabeth Odio Benito

Throughout her career, she has specialized in human rights, international criminal law, and the rights of women.

Elizabeth Odio Benito studied at University of Costa Rica. The recorded working language is Spanish and English. The field of work recorded is law, jurisprudence and human rights. Positions recorded include Judge of the International Criminal Court and Vice President of Costa Rica. Distinctions recorded are La Galería de las Mujeres de Costa Rica and honorary doctor of the University of Madrid Complutense.

• Name — Elizabeth Odio Benito • Office — President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights • Term Start — 1 January 2020 • Term End — 31 December 2021 • Predecessor — Eduardo Ferrer • Successor — Ricardo Pérez Manrique • Office1 — Judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights • Term Start1 — 1 January 2016 • Term End1 — 31 December 2021 • Nominator1 — Costa Rica • Successor1 — Nancy Hernández López • Office2 — Second Vice-President of the International Criminal Court • Term Start2 — 11 March 2003 • Term End2 — 10 March 2006 • Appointer2 — Judges of the ICC • Predecessor2 — Office established • Successor2 — René Blattmann • Office3 — Judge of the International Criminal Court • Term Start3 — 11 March 2003 • Term End3 — 31 August 2012 • Nominator3 — Panama • Appointer3 — Assembly of States Parties • Office4 — Second Vice-President of Costa Rica • Alongside4 — Astrid Fischel • Term Start4 — 8 May 1998 • Term End4 — 8 May 2002 • President4 — Miguel Ángel Rodríguez • Predecessor4 — Rebeca Grynspan • Successor4 — Luis Fishman • Office5 — Minister of Environment and Energy • Term Start5 — 8 May 1998 • Term End5 — 8 May 2002 • President5 — Miguel Ángel Rodríguez • Predecessor5 — René Castro Salazar • Successor5 — Carlos Rodríguez Echandi • Office6 — Vice-President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia • Term Start6 — November 1993 • Term End6 — November 1995 • Successor6 — Adolphus Godwin Karibi-Whyte • Predecessor6 — Office established • Office7 — Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia • Term Start7 — 17 November 1993 • Term End7 — 16 November 1998 • Office8 — Minister of Justice and Grace • Term Start8 — 8 May 1990 • Term End8 — 8 May 1994 • President8 — Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier • Predecessor8 — Maruja Chacón Pacheco • Successor8 — Enrique Castillo Barrantes • Term Start9 — 8 May 1978 • Term End9 — 8 May 1982 • President9 — Rodrigo Carazo Odio • Predecessor9 — Milton Arias Calvo • Successor9 — Carlos Gutiérrez Gutiérrez • Birth Name — Elizabeth Odio Benito • Born — 15 September 1939 • Birthplace — Puntarenas, Costa Rica • Party — PUSC • Other Party — Unity Coalition (1977–1983) • Education — University of Costa Rica (LLB) University of Buenos Aires National University of Costa Rica • Occupation — * Lawyer • judge • politician • professor • writer

Although born in Puntarenas, the first child of Emiliano Odio Madrigal and Esperanza Benito Ibañez, most of her early life was spent in San José, where she attended the Colegio Superior de Señoritas. The law was something of a tradition on her father's side of the family; Odio Benito was particularly encouraged by her lawyer uncle, Ulises Odio Santos, to study that subject. She graduated with a master's degree from the University of Costa Rica in 1964, where she remained for much of her academic career, rising to a full professorship in 1986 and Vice-President for Academic Affairs in 1988. During this period, she began to work in the field of gender studies, with an emphasis on crimes committed against women.

From 1976 to 1978 she served as Secretary to the Colegio de Abogados, the bar association of Costa Rica, and in 1978 was appointed to the joint offices of Minister of Justice and Attorney General, which she held until 1982 when the National Liberation Party took the presidency. In 1990 she returned for another four-year term as Minister of Justice, under President Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier. The peak of her domestic political career came in 1998, with her election as Second Vice-President alongside President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez and First Vice-President Astrid Fischel Volio; during this time she was also Minister for the Environment and Energy.

Odio Benito's involvement in international justice began during her second ministerial term, with her 1993 appointment as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. A major contribution during these proceedings was Odio Benito's successful effort to have rape and other sexual assaults considered as torture. Her interpretation, based on a case of two Serbian women raped in the Čelebići detention camp, is now an accepted principle of international law. In 1998 Odio Benito left ICTY as a consequence of becoming Vice-President, but she continued to play an active role in related areas of the law. Most notably, she was president of the United Nations working group that drew up the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture. Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, or Punishment This additional treaty, open to any State that is party to the main UN Convention Against Torture anti-torture Convention, allows for international and independent national experts to visit any prison, detention camp, or similar facility, speak in private with people held there, and make recommendations to authorities aimed at preventing torture or other abuse from being practiced there. The Optional Protocol entered into force on 22 June 2006. As of 31 January 2007 it had 32 State Parties with a further 31 States have signed but not yet ratified the Protocol.

Odio Benito's election to the International Criminal Court was not without controversy. Her candidacy had initially been sponsored by Costa Rica, but President Abel Pacheco withdrew support without explanation. Various women's groups mobilised to campaign for her readmittance.Center for the Study of Women She was eventually renominated by Panama, whose then president, Mireya Moscoso, is another noted activist for women's rights. Odio Benito was thus the only candidate not to be sponsored by her own nation. Nevertheless, she was elected in the first out of thirty-three rounds of voting, indicating strong support from the States Parties. The ICC officially opened on 11 March 2003, with Elizabeth Odio Benito as Second Vice-President. When the International Criminal Court sentenced Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga to 14 years in prison in July 2012 for using child soldiers in his rebel army in 2002 and 2003 – the first sentence imposed by the court in its history –, Odio Benito disagreed with her two fellow judges and in a dissenting opinion said that 15 years would have been more appropriate given the harm done to the victims and their families, particularly due to harsh punishments and sexual violence against the UPC's child soldiers.

Odio Benito served as a judge of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights from 2016 to 2021. She served as President in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights from 2020 to 2021. She was the second woman to hold this position.

Elizabeth Odio Benito is recorded as having received La Galería de las Mujeres de Costa Rica and honorary doctor of the University of Madrid Complutense.