Francisco Rezek: Judging achievements

This article is part of an in depth special report on the Lebanese in Brazil. Read more stories as they’re published here, or pick up July’s issue at newsstands in Lebanon. José Francisco Rezek was always proud of his Lebanese roots growing up, but it was not until he was nearing the end of his career that he first engaged with the Middle East professionally. Already having served as head of Brazil’s Supreme Court and the country’s foreign minister, in 1996 he swapped his home country for the Netherlands — becoming one of the 15 judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. It was there that he ruled on one of the Middle East’s perhaps most controversial issues — the construction by Israel of a 640-kilometer wall which began in 2002. In a decision that was 10 years old yesterday, the court was asked to rule