On behalf of the Judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), I wish to express my appreciation to the Members of the Security Council of the United Nations for their unanimous adoption yesterday of Resolution 1431 (2002) which enables the creation of a pool of eighteen ad litem judges. This measure will significantly enhance the capacity of the Tribunal to dispose of the cases pending before it.

We note that the amendments brought to the Statute by Resolution 1431 provide for only four of the ad litem judges to sit in the Trial Chambers at any one time, rather than the nine proposed by the Tribunal with a view to completing our mandate by a projected date of 2008.

We also note that the Resolution calls upon the Secretary General to make the practical arrangements for the election of the eighteen ad litem judges as soon as possible and for Member States to cooperate fully with the ICTR. In that spirit we urge all Member States to propose a sufficient number of qualified candidates so that the new judges can take up their duties as soon as possible.

Navanethem Pillay President

Note by the ICTR Press and Public Affairs Unit

Ad litem judges are special, additional judges, appointed for a non-renewable term of four years in order to increase the Tribunal's capacity to deal with its case load with due dispatch. The number of permanent judges and their terms of service remain unchanged.

The text of the Security Council Resolution and the detailed provisions of the Statute governing the election and service of the ad litem judges are included in Security Council Press release SC/7482 of 14 August 2002. They will be posted on the ICTR Website (www.ictr.org) shortly.

Details of eight trials currently in progress, involving 21 accused persons and of the further 29 accused currently awaiting trial are also available on the Website.