Date · Friday, 8 May 2026, 19:00 CEST
Hosted by · ICC
Session page · UNOG learning
Speakers
- Daiga Barone · Head of Talent Acquisition, International Criminal Court · Bio
- Sandra Čolić · Strategic Workforce Planning Lead, Human Resources Officer, International Criminal Court · Bio
In a world where geopolitical tensions, conflicts and humanitarian crises continue to challenge global stability, the role of the International Criminal Court has never been more vital. This presentation invites you to explore how you can contribute to the ICC’s mission of delivering justice for the world’s most serious crimes. You’ll gain an inside look at the Court’s work, its global structure and the wide range of professional paths available, from legal, investigative and forensic roles to analyst, administrative, security and language services. We will also share practical guidance on navigating ICC job profiles, applications, recruitment steps and the assessment process.
Key takeaways
- The ICC is independent of the UN but follows UN salary, pension, job design and procedural rules. UN staff can move to the ICC and vice versa via the Inter-Organization Agreement on transfers, secondments and loans, but the formalities are negotiated only after selection, not before.
- You do not have to be a lawyer. The largest groups at the ICC are administrative assistants, security officers, analysts, investigators, and interpreters and translators. Languages and investigation-support roles receive the fewest applications, so the conversion ratio is much better than for legal positions.
- Last year: 50,000 applications for 219 vacancies. For popular legal positions, 1,000 applications per role. The application itself is the first sieve. Incomplete profiles are disqualified.
- Read vacancy announcements for the organisational unit and duty station, not the job title. A position in the Office of the Prosecutor signals investigation or prosecution work. A Registry position can still involve field work. The unit and location tell you what the job is.
- Language requirements can be disqualifiers. Working languages are English and French, but situational languages (Sangho or any language relevant to a field operation) can be required at proficient level for specific posts. Self-assess accurately.
- The fixed-term process is written test plus interview. The written test is designed by the hiring manager and tests technical skills (scenario solutions, memoranda, project plans). The interview uses the STAR or CAR method (situation, task, action, result, learning).
- In competency-based interviews, emphasise “I” over “we”. In some cultures the team-first reflex is natural, but the panel needs to assess your individual contribution to each situation.
Sandra Čolić
Sandra opened the substantive content by establishing what the ICC actually is, because almost every practical decision about applying flows from understanding the institution. The Court was created by the Rome Statute, adopted in 1998 and entered into force in 2002. It is the world’s first permanent international criminal court, treaty-based, and acts as a court of last resort, complementing rather than replacing national jurisdictions. It steps in only where national jurisdictions cannot or will not act on the gravest crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. This framing matters for candidates because it shapes the type of work, the rhythm of cases, and the kind of resilience the institution looks for.
She walked through the four organs and key independent bodies, with practical relevance for vacancy reading. The Presidency (three judges) handles overall administration except for the Office of the Prosecutor and represents the Court externally. The Chambers (18 judges in Pre-Trial, Trial, and Appeals divisions) deliver fair proceedings. The Office of the Prosecutor is independent: it examines situations and conducts investigations and prosecutions. The Registry is the administrative backbone, supporting judges and the OTP, and handling defence, victims, public administration, and security. The independent bodies include the Assembly of States Parties (the Court’s management, oversight, and legislative body, which adopts the budget and elects judges and prosecutors) and the Trust Fund for Victims (which finances and implements reparations and assistance programmes). Her concrete advice for candidates: read the organisational unit and duty station on every vacancy announcement, because that already tells you what kind of work you will be exposed to. A position in the OTP signals investigation or prosecution work; a position in the Registry could still involve field work; a Trust Fund role exposes you to victim-facing programmes.
She gave the operational facts that change how a candidate plans an application. The ICC has about 1,000 staff members from roughly 100 states, six official languages but two working languages (English and French), its seat in The Hague, a liaison office in New York, and six country offices that are opened and closed depending on the situation (the newest is Ukraine). The 2026 budget is 196.9 million. Currently 34 cases are before the Court: 61 arrest warrants issued, 9 summonses to appear, 22 persons detained and brought before the Court, 32 still at large, 13 convictions, 4 acquittals, charges against 8 persons terminated due to death.
The most actionable contribution from her side was a clear taxonomy of contract categories and how to read them on a vacancy announcement. Staff categories include Professional level (internationally recruited specialists and managers), General Service (administrative and operational support), National Professional Officers (national expertise based in The Hague or in country offices), and Junior Professional Officers (JPOs, sponsored by their governments). Non-staff categories include internships, visiting professional placements, consultants, individual contractors, and pro bono assignments. Critically for UN staff, the ICC has signed the Inter-Organization Agreement on transfers, secondments and loans of staff among organisations applying the UN common system. ICC staff can move into the UN, and UN staff can move into the ICC.
Her guidance on reading vacancy announcements was sharp and concrete. Do not read for the job title alone. Read for the organisational unit, the duty station, the candidate profile (education and years of experience, with the standard trade-off that more experience can offset the absence of a master’s degree), and the language requirements. Languages can be disqualifiers: working languages are English and French, but situational languages (Sangho, for instance, or any language relevant to a specific field operation) can be required at proficient level for specific posts. Self-assessment on languages is necessary because misjudgment can disqualify you. Knowledge, skills and abilities will be assessed during the process, alongside ICC core and leadership competencies. She also flagged the ongoing transition: the ICC is moving to job networks and job families with generic job descriptions, similar to the UN system but with some families unique to the ICC. The vacancy announcement format will change soon as a result.
She closed her opening segment with the message that the Court’s activities are independent and that proceedings are fair and respectful of defendants’ and victims’ rights. This matters less for the application mechanics and more for understanding the institution’s value proposition.
In the Q&A she added two important clarifications. First, position stability: the ICC is not part of the UN and the UN80 situation has not affected its recruitment. The ICC is recruiting actively, applications doubled in the last couple of years, and there is no recruitment freeze. There are no permanent positions, but the most stable formats are established posts and General Temporary Assistance, plus short-term roles (up to two years), consultancies and individual contractor arrangements. Second, on master’s degrees: there is no single recommendation. The ICC employs business administration, public administration, IT, forensic, psychology and many other profiles. Apply if you see a vacancy that matches.
Daiga Barone
Daiga delivered the practical recruitment content, which is the part of the session a candidate would re-read before submitting. She framed it from the start: the ICC is independent of the UN but follows UN salary, pension, job design and procedural processes through a cooperation agreement.
She listed the most common job profiles by filtering existing staff data, deliberately to challenge the assumption that ICC means lawyer. The largest groups are administrative assistants (because the Court is large and every organ needs support), security officers (specialised across building security, the detention centre, close protection of elected officials, and field security where investigations take place), associate legal officers and legal officers and legal advisors (present across the Court but not the dominant function), and analysts and analyst assistants (a significant group, increasingly important because so much war-crime evidence is now digital and needs analysis). Investigators and associate investigators usually have police or military backgrounds. Field operations and field programme roles work in challenging environments (with Ukraine being the newest office). Interpreters and translators are a large group (the area where they receive the fewest applications, which she flagged as a real opportunity). HR, IT and technical support, trial and appeal lawyers and legal support in OTP, and forensic roles with medical or technical backgrounds round out the profile mix. The actionable signal here is to look beyond the legal track and to consider the under-applied tracks (especially languages) where the application-to-vacancy ratio is far better.
Her treatment of the recruitment process was the operational backbone of the session. The structure is set in the Rome Statute itself: competitive process, merit-based, with attention to gender and geographical representation. The steps are application, screening, assessment, and selection.
On applications, her message was direct. Last year the ICC received 50,000 applications for 219 vacancies. For the most popular legal positions, you can have 1,000 applications for one position. Filling the application correctly is the first test. Profile should be complete: work experience, education, training, duties, responsibilities, CV attached. The motivation letter is mandatory. It does not need to be ten pages: focus, show interest, link your experience and education to the position. If your profile is incomplete, you may be disqualified. The same data is used later in screening for eligibility, in selection, and in determining the salary step at the offer stage. Two specific warnings: do not disqualify yourself (research shows women and young professionals often exclude themselves from lengthy vacancy announcements), and do not leave it to the last two hours before the deadline. Take the time to do it properly.
Critically, applications must go through the system. The ICC does not accept applications by email or post. Follow them on LinkedIn for opportunity alerts and create a profile in the recruitment system to receive notifications.
On assessment, she distinguished between contract types. For short-term recruitments, the process can be just a desk review, an interview, or include a written test, but the steps are not mandatory because the need is immediate. For fixed-term positions the process is fixed: written test (in most cases) and interview. Before the written test, re-read the job opening, responsibilities and competencies, and read the public information on the website (organisation strategy, reports relevant to the position). The written test is designed by the hiring manager and is meant to test technical skills. It can include written questions, scenarios requiring solutions, requests to draft memoranda, project plans, or strategy implementation plans. Tasks are directly linked to the job. The competency-based interview uses the STAR or CAR method: situation, task, action, result, learning. She gave one important cultural note for non-Western candidates: in some cultures it is more natural to say “we” than “I”, but in a competency-based interview it is essential to emphasise your own concrete contribution to the situation. Listen to what is asked, prepare in advance if you have not done this format before, and stay yourself in the process.
On selection, she warned candidates to be patient. The Selection Review Board (an internal body) reviews most recruitment cases to verify that guidelines and rules were followed and that all candidates were treated fairly and transparently. Once the principal approves the decision, the candidate is invited for security clearance, which is mandatory for both staff and non-staff. Her wording: “be mindful what you do out of your working hours, otherwise you won’t be able to join us.” Medical clearance follows in parallel. Only when security clearance is granted is the formal offer issued. Start date is negotiated case by case, and for UN staff transfers, secondments and loans are arranged at this stage, not earlier.
In the Q&A she added concrete clarifications that close practical gaps for candidates. On nationality: anyone can apply, but a memorandum currently forbids hiring citizens of non-State Parties to the Rome Statute for professional positions. Exceptions exist when the principal (registrar or prosecutor) justifies a hire based on specific investigation needs or scarce skills. The memorandum does not apply to internships, visiting professionals, some consultants, and General Services positions, nor to staff already at the ICC who hold non-State Party nationalities. On General Service in The Hague: you do not need to be Dutch; European citizens can work in the Netherlands. National Professional Officer positions, by contrast, require nationality of the duty station country. On secondments from the UN: you apply like every other candidate first, and the secondment formalities are negotiated only after you have been selected. On underrepresented states: there is no separate review track, and the screening is competency-based. Nationality can play a tie-breaking role when the principal chooses among multiple suitable and qualified candidates, but it is never a guarantee. Underrepresented-state nationals are encouraged to apply because diversity and geographical representation are active priorities.
She closed the session with what she called the number one competency required at the ICC besides commitment to the mandate: resilience and patience. Justice does not come fast or easy, and the first shock of new staff is often discovering this rhythm.
Frameworks and models
| Name | What it stands for | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| CAR Interview Method (with Learning) | Two near-equivalent structured response formats. STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result. CAR: Context, Action, Result. The ICC adds a fifth element: Learning. (Documented as part of the cross-session SMART Method family page, which now covers Day 4 S6, Day 5 S3, and Day 5 S7. Includes the ICC’s “I not we” cultural note.) | Use for every answer in a competency-based interview at the ICC. Set the scene briefly, name your specific task, describe the action you personally took (use “I” not “we”), report the concrete result, and close with what you learned. Prepare 6 to 8 stories in advance, mapped to the competencies in the vacancy announcement |
| ICC Recruitment Funnel | Four stages: Application → Screening → Assessment (written test plus interview for fixed-term) → Selection (Selection Review Board, security clearance, medical clearance, offer). (The post-interview SRB / clearance / offer stage and the application volume signals are documented in the cross-session Application Review Audiences page. The ICC-specific organs and contract structure stay in this session note as reference.) | Use to plan time and effort across an application. The application stage is the first sieve and demands the most candidate work. Assessment is multi-step and can include scenarios, memoranda, project plans. Selection adds patience: SRB review, security clearance, medical clearance, then offer |
| ICC Vacancy Announcement Reading Order | Read in this order: organisational unit → duty station → key duties and responsibilities → candidate profile (education, years of experience, language requirements as disqualifiers) → core and leadership competencies. (Documented as the structural-reading-order section of the cross-session JD Colour-Coded Breakdown page.) | Use when scanning a long vacancy announcement so that the structural signals (where you would sit, where you would work, what languages you need) filter out misfits before you invest time on duties and the motivation letter |
| ICC Contract Taxonomy | Staff: Professional, General Service, National Professional Officer, Junior Professional Officer. Non-staff: internships, visiting professional placements, consultants, individual contractors, pro bono assignments. (ICC-specific reference; not extracted as a standalone framework page since it is organisation-specific reference rather than a generalisable operational tool. Same call as Day 4 S7 and Day 1 S7.) | Use to identify which contract format fits your profile and stage. Non-State Party nationals can pursue internships, visiting professionals, some consultants, and General Service. UN staff can move via transfer, secondment or loan after selection |
Resources
| Resource | What it is / What it’s for | Link |
|---|---|---|
| ICC Careers website | Official portal for vacancy announcements and application submission. Applications must go through this system; email and post are not accepted | https://www.icc-cpi.int/about/careers |
| ICC LinkedIn page | Active channel where the Talent Acquisition team posts opportunities and updates. Recommended for opportunity alerts | https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-criminal-court/ |
| Rome Statute | The treaty establishing the ICC. Defines the Court’s mandate, structure, and recruitment principles (competitive, merit-based) | https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/RS-Eng.pdf |
| UN Policy Portal, Inter-Organization Agreement | Document on transfers, secondments and loans of staff among organisations applying the UN common system. Relevant for UN staff considering a move to the ICC | https://policy.un.org/ |
| ICC Trust Fund for Victims | Independent body that finances and implements reparations and assistance programmes for victims and their families | https://trustfundforvictims.org/ |
Last updated 2026-05-10.