Joyce Aluoch is a Kenyan judge who served as a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from 2009 to 2018. Aluoch attended Butere Girls’ School for her Ordinary Level Certificate, and Limuru Girls’ School for her Higher School Certificate. She received her Law Degree from the University of Nairobi, a diploma in Legal Studies from the Kenya School of Law, and a Master’s degree in International Relations from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

In 1974, Justice Aluoch was appointed a District Magistrate II, where she oversaw several trials convicting rebels after a coup attempt took place in Kenya. In 1993, Justice Aluoch was appointed a judge of the Kenyan High Court, where she eventually moved up to become a Senior Judge of the Court and handled cases related to family, commercial, criminal, and civil law. She also became inaugural head of the Family Division of the High Court, where she pushed for fair, timely, and affordable justice.

Justice Aluoch was elected as Vice-Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2003, after serving as the Chairperson of the African Union Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2001. At the African Union Committee, she had been involved in negotiations made on behalf of the African Union, and undertaking missions that gathered information on the rights of children in certain regions. At the UN Committee, she worked towards the implementation of the new Sexual Offences Act of 2006.

Justice Aluoch was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2007, only to be elected to the ICC in 2009. There, she served as a member of the trial division, and later as First Vice President of the Court. Justice Aluoch has received training in Humanitarian Law and was trained in Human Rights Law through the Jurisprudence in Equality Programme, run by the International Association of Women Judges in partnership with the Kenya Women Judges’ Association.