The President of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Judge Vagn Joensen today assigned Judge Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov to the Appeals Chamber of the ICTR. The assignment takes effect from 29 June 2012.

The assignment was made by Judge Joensen after having consulted with the President of the Appeals Chamber Judge Theodor Meron and with the Permanent Judges of the Tribunal in May 2012, and bearing in mind the need to ensure trial experience from the Tribunal in the work of the Appeals Chamber.

Judge Joensen recalled the consultations conducted by then ICTR President Judge Dennis Byron in 2011 and the Order of 21 June 2011 setting-out that further consultations be conducted before the assignment of Judges to the Appeals Chamber.

Resolution 1878 (2009) of the UN Security Council and amended Article 13 (3) of the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda provides that the President may assign up to four additional Permanent Judges serving in the ICTR Trial Chambers to the Appeals Chamber of the ICTR once their cases are completed.

Resolution 1955 (2010) and Resolution 1995 (2011) of the Security Council notes that, upon completion of the cases to which they are assigned, four permanent judges will be redeployed from the Trial Chambers to the Appeals Chamber.

Judge Tuzmukhamedov is the third permanent judge of the Tribunal to be assigned to the ICTR Appeals Chamber after Judges Khalida Rachid Khan and Arlette Ramaroson.