The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to reappoint Justice Hassan Bubacar Jallow as the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

The reappointment came on 14 September when the Security Council adopted Resolution 1774(2007) giving Jallow another four year term. The appointment took effect on 15 September and is subject to early termination by the Council if the Tribunal finishes its work by the end of 2010 as projected under its Completion Strategy.

Jallow was first appointed on 28 August 2003 under Security Council Resolution 1503 which amended Article 15 of the Statute of the ICTR giving the Tribunal its own Prosecutor. Previous to Jallow’s appointment, the ICTR shared a prosecutor with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Before joining the ICTR, Jallow was a judge in the Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. He also served as Gambia’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice from 1984 to 1994 and later as a judge of The Gambia’s Supreme Court.

Responding to the news, Prosecutor Jallow said he felt very honored by this decision of the Security Council. He thanked the staff of the ICTR as well as UN member states whose support he said has made much progress possible over the years. “We must now all reinforce our resolve to successfully completing the work of the Tribunal within the framework of the Completion Strategy” the Prosecutor stated.