Date of initial election to the judicial roster: 21 December 2018
Current term: 1 July 2024 – 30 June 2026
Judge Yusuf Aksar has been a Judge of the Mechanism since December 2018. In this capacity, Judge Aksar has adjudicated a variety of matters as a Single Judge and was a member of the Appeals Chamber in the Stanišić & Simatović case.
In addition to his role at the Mechanism, Judge Aksar served as an ad hoc Judge of the European Court of Human Rights from 2015 to 2018, and has been a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration since 2016.
Judge Aksar also holds the positions of Professor and Head of the Department of International Law and Public Law at the Faculty of Law of the Maltepe University in Istanbul, Türkiye (since 2011) and previously served as the Dean of the same Faculty (2012-2019). Earlier in his career, Judge Aksar held different academic positions at the Black Sea Technical University in Trabzon, Türkiye (2000-2011) and the Kadir Has University in Istanbul (2007-2009). Judge Aksar has published widely on international criminal law, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law. In 2007, he received an award by the Turkish Academy of Sciences as one of the Honourable Youngest Scientists.
Judge Aksar holds a bachelor’s degree in law from the Ankara University, Türkiye (1993); a master’s degree in law from the same university (1996); a master’s degree in law from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom (1997); and a PhD in law from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom (2000). He is fluent in English and Turkish.