Age: 51
Occupation: Chief prosecutor, International Criminal Court
A decade since it was founded to punish war crimes and crimes against humanity, the ICC has secured just one conviction. And since most cases concern Africans, it finds itself accused of an anti-Africa bias. As an African woman, Bensouda, a former Justice Minister in Gambia, should mitigate the latter while also giving voice to female war victims. Her toughest test will be trying to extend the rule of law across a continent that, so often, has little of it.