Pakistan’s Permanent Representative, Ambassador Masood Khan while speaking in the Security Council which met on Wednesday to hear the updates on the work of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) told the 15-member body that Pakistan commended and supported the important work of the two Tribunals for delivering justice and ending impunity, adding that Pakistan appreciated tribunals contributions for developing a comprehensive corpus of precedents in international criminal law.
The ambassador said that he was pleased at the arrangements for transferring archives from the Rwandan court and expressed the hope that the court for the former Yugoslavia would follow suit in a timely manner. Noting the challenges to the completion process, he called for timely conclusion of all activities, while ensuring the maintenance of the highest legal standards. The legacies of the Tribunals must be preserved because of their contribution to international law.
“The Tribunals need to show commitment to the timely conclusion of their proceedings and ensure full compliance with the requirements of due process. We recognize difficulties in the assignment of work to judges, and staff management, in the process of winding down the work of the Tribunals”.
Mentioning two requests, which were made to the Council for extension of the terms of office of judges of ICTR’s and ICTY, the ambassador said that he was constructively engaged with the Working Group to decide on the duration of judges extension.
Theodor Meron, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, informed the 15-member body that the court was making excellent progress towards completing its work. Vagn Joensen, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, reported that the transition from the Tribunal to the Arusha branch of the Residual Mechanism was now well under way and progressing according to plan since its opening on 1 July.
