The permanent Judges of the ICTR today elected a new President and Vice-President at the Tribunal’s 13th Plenary session. Judge Erik Møse, of Norway, former ICTR Vice-President, was elected as ICTR President, and Judge Andrésia Vaz, of Senegal, was elected as Vice-President.

Judge Møse was an Appeals Court Judge in Oslo until he took up his functions as a Judge at the ICTR. He was previously a barrister at the Attorney General’s Office and before that Head of Division in the Ministry of Justice. He has chaired many committees, including the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Human Rights and the Expert Committee that drafted the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture. Judge Møse was elected as Vice-President of the ICTR in May 1999.

Judge Vaz served in 1992 as First President of Senegal’s Court of Appeal and later became President of the High Court of Senegal. From 1997 until her election as Judge of the ICTR in 2001, Judge Vaz served as First President of the Supreme Court of Senegal. Judge Vaz was an Associate Member of the International Commission of Jurists and Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, a swearing-in ceremony saw three new judges begin their terms at the ICTR. The three new judges are Inés Mónica Weinberg de Roca of Argentina, Jai Ram Reddy of Fiji and Sergei Aleckseievich Egorov of the Russian Federation. All ICTR judges were elected by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 31 January 2003, and will serve at the Tribunal from 25 May 2003 to 24 May 2007.

The previous evening, the ICTR Judges were presented with the second ICTR Report of Orders, Decisions and Judgements. The publication, which covers the year 1998, was compiled and edited by the Université Libre de Bruxelles. It was presented by Ms. Catherine Denis at a function in honor of the outgoing President of the ICTR, Navanethem Pillay. The previous edition of the ICTR Report covered the years 1995 to 1997. The 1999 edition is currently in progress.