\nArusha, December 1, 2000 (FH) \u2013 The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has welcomed Thursday\u2019s decision by the UN Security Council to boost its Appeals Chamber, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports. \u201c Of course it is good news for the ICTR, \u201d Tribunal spokesman Kingsley Moghalu told Hirondelle on Friday, \u201c because it will strengthen the capacity of the Tribunal's Appeals Chamber to deal with an increasingly heavy caseload.\n<\/p>\n
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\n\u201dMoghalu said that while rule changes and court decisions should reduce the levels of \u201c frivolous \u201d appeals, the number of substantive ones was likely to increase as the ICTR moved to speed up trials. \u201c I think we can expect that a lot of judgements may be appealed, which will increase the Chamber'sworkload, \u201d Moghalu said. \u201c That's why this decision is very important. \u201dOn Thursday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to grant two additional judges to the ICTR. The Tribunal President will then select two ICTR judges to sit on the Appeals Chamber, boosting the number of appeals judges from five to seven. The Appeals Chamber, based in The Hague, Netherlands, serves both the ICTR and the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Up to now, however, it has been composed entirely of ICTY judges. \u201c Having judges from the ICTR included in the Appeals Chamber is a positive development, \u201d ICTR spokesman Moghalu told Hirondelle. \u201c I think it will be useful in terms of substance to have input from judges who are on the ground at the Tribunal. The Security Council also approved a new pool of 27 judges to serve the ICTY on an \u201c ad litem \u201d basis, meaning they will be appointed to specific trials as and when needed. \u201c In unanimously adopting a resolution amending the Statutes of the two Tribunals, the Council responded to requests by their respective Presidents for additional judges in order to expeditiously process the heavy workloads facing the courts, \u201d says a UN press release. UN members states will be asked to nominate candidates to fill the new judges\u2019 positions. The judges will then be elected by the General Assembly, from a list submitted by the Security Council. An experts\u2019 report on the functioning of the two international tribunals had pointed to the caseload of the Appeals Chamber as one of the factors hampering the smooth and expeditious running of the judicial process. It recommended that appeals judges should be separate from the trial judges,but also proposed boosting the number of appeals judges as a second option. The ICTR has now passed sentences on eight people, three of whom pleaded guilty, meaning that a full trial was not necessary. There are more than 40 people awaiting trial, many of whom were arrested several years ago. In a recent speech at the UN, ICTR President Navanethem Pillay of South Africa said that all three trial chambers were expected to be functioning next year. Three new trials have started since September and more have been announced for 2001. JC\/FH (JU%1201e)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arusha, December 1, 2000 (FH) \u2013 The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has welcomed Thursday\u2019s decision by the UN Security Council to boost its Appeals Chamber, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports. \u201c Of course it is good news for the ICTR, \u201d Tribunal spokesman Kingsley Moghalu told Hirondelle on Friday, \u201c because it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-15895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirondellenews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n