UN war crimes tribunals demand resources to the General Assembly

[News_Editor]

UN war crimes tribunals demand resources to the General Assembly

2010-10-09 23:42:39 GMT+7 (ICT)

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) – The United Nations (UN) war crimes tribunals demanded resources to the UN General assembly in order to continue its work and maintain its staff.

"In all our efforts, we are facing one main stumbling block: the staffing situation. We continue to lose many of our best and most experienced staff members, often to other institutions in the same field where they can obtain longer-term contracts," said Judge Dennis Byron, President of the International Criminal tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

The UN tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia have seen their progress hampered by the lack of resources that mostly impact in their staff as many experienced members departed due to more secure employment. Byron remarked that the staff is an indispensable element of completing the work of the Tribunal.

The tribunal for Rwanda was created in November 1994 to prosecute those responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the African country that year. Around 800,000 people, Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were killed with machetes in 100 days.

Judge Byron added that despite the staffing issues, ICTR has made significant progress in completing its objective. He announced that in this trend, judgment delivery in all the ongoing or commencing cases will be completed by the end of 2011.

Similar hardships have endured the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as declared by its President, Judge Patrick Robinson. He said that experienced ICTY staff is departing at an alarming rate and even though the Tribunal has increased its capacity from conducting six trials at a time to ten trials, resources have not increased in comparison.

"The Tribunal will always be prone to a certain degree of unforeseeability, which is a natural element in most kinds of judicial work, and particularly in trials as complicated as those at the Tribunal," Robinson said.

The ICTY has accomplished some achievements since its inception. The Tribunal was set up to try those responsible for the atrocities committed during the Balkan wars of the 1990s and called on Member States to commit more funds in order to bring its work to a closing.

"The Tribunal has demonstrated to the international community that international humanitarian law is an enforceable body of law; that it binds the conduct of the most senior State officials; and that the rule of law is a living, breathing reality that forms part of the fabric of our civilization."

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-10-09

[hobanse]

Bush, Wolfowitz, Blair, Rumsfeld & Co,are you ready for Den Hague?