Refugees from Rwanda, 1994. The Security Council heard a report on the work of international justice bodies International Law
The UN continues to make progress in delivering justice for the most serious crimes committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals told the Security Council on Tuesday.
The mechanism was created in 2010 to complete the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Upholding Justice
The President of the Mechanism, Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, outlined the work of her office, including the retrial of Gerard Ntakirutimana. Ntakirutimana was initially convicted by the ICTR in 2003 for his role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The retrial was ordered after Ntakirutimana said he had discovered new information about a witness’s retraction. The Appeals Chamber conducted an expeditious review and upheld the convictions.
Gatti Santana stressed that the Mechanism’s other residual functions, including supervising the enforcement of sentences and providing assistance to national judiciaries, continued to require time and resources.
A Call for Cooperation
She stressed, however, the need for greater cooperation from States. In particular, the judge referred to the case of the six acquitted or released individuals in Niger, which remains “in limbo.”
Similarly, the case of Petar Jojić and Verica Radeta remains unresolved after almost a decade due to Serbia’s lack of cooperation in arresting and handing over the accused.
Gatti Santana also called for more support in converting the UN detention facility into a penal facility. The detention facility, located in the prison complex in The Hague, is holding four people.
Search for missing persons
The Prosecutor of the Mechanism, Serge Brammertz, also briefed the Security Council, stressing the importance of ensuring the integrity of previous judicial decisions, especially in the face of allegations of interference aimed at overturning sentences.
He cited as a noteworthy initiative the cooperation between the Office of the Prosecutor and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in searching for missing persons from the conflicts in Yugoslavia in the 1990s. As part of this joint project, documents and audiovisual material on more than 12,000 missing persons have been provided.
The Office also provides support to national authorities in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, where many fugitives and suspects remain missing. According to Brammertz, more than 400 requests for assistance have been received in 2024.
“It is clear that Member States need our support today more than ever,” he stressed.