Gambian-born chief prosecutor-designate of the International Criminal Court has been named by the US-based Time Magazine as among the 100 Most Influential People in the World’ in the year 2012. Fatou Bom Bensouda and President Goodluck Jonathan are the only West African in the list.

In its latest 2012 list published on Wednesday, the Time Magazine cited: ‘The 100 people inspire, entertain, challenge and change the world and are selected from breakouts, pioneers, moguls, leaders and icons.

Prominent in the list are Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader; Basad Al-Assad, president of Syria; Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader; Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state; Angele Merkel, German chancellor; Lionel Messi, Barcelona king and world best player; Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Prime Minister; Mitt Romney, US presidential aspirant; Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF;Barack Obama, US president; Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, Prime Minister of Qatar; Juan Manuel Santos, president of Colombia; Novak Djokovic, Novak Djokovic, world's third-ranked tennis player and Anonymous, the internet hive brain plundering and playing in the electronic networks.

Fatou Bensouda will take office as chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on June 16. As the court's second prosecutor and the first African woman to assume the top job at an international tribunal, she faces daunting challenges in advancing the court's significant, but still fragile, progress. Her mission is to prosecute those responsible for the most serious crimes — genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity — when domestic courts and prosecutors fail. Among those accused by the court are Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif and Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony.

Bensouda, 51, brings many years of experience to the job, as a prosecutor in Gambia, on the international tribunal prosecuting Rwanda's genocidaires and as deputy ICC prosecutor for eight years. Thoughtful, soft-spoken, yet determined and forceful, Bensouda has been a leading voice pressing governments to support the quest for justice, particularly in Africa.