Three new ad litem judges appointed by the United Nations Secretary General to the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda have already reported for work in Arusha, Tanzania.

The three are Judge Joseph Masanche (Tanzania) who was sworn in on 12 January 2009 during a ceremony witnessed by the Registrar Mr. Adama Dieng, representing the UN Secretary General. The swearing-in ceremonies of Judge Mparany Mamy Richard Rajohnson (Madagascar) on 26 January 2009 and Judge Aydin Sefa Akay (Turkey), on 29 January 2009 during a ceremony were witnessed by the Deputy Registrar, Mr. Everard O’Donnell.

The ceremonies were administered by the Tribunal’s President, Judge Dennis Byron. Their appointment was made following an appeal, in December 2008, by the President of the Tribunal Judge Dennis Byron, to the UN Security Council to appoint more ad litem judges to replace those permanent and ad litem judges who have resigned and to assist the Tribunal in light of the heavy workload facing it this year. Judge Masanche (64) was Judge of the High Court of Tanzania since 1989.

Prior to that he worked in the judiciary in various capacities as Resident Magistrate, District Registrar and Judge In-Charge. He graduated in 1970 with an LLB from the University of East Africa. Judge Rajohnson (60) was General Secretary of the Ministry of Justice since 2002. He worked for several years in senior positions in the Ministry of Justice and as a Judge and Senior Examining Magistrate in the courts of Madagascar

. He has a Diplôme (Postgraduate degree) from the Judicial Studies Institute and Licence (Bachelor’s degree) in private law from the Antananarivo University. Judge Akay (58) was Legal Counsellor in the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Turkish Permanent Representations to the UN, UNESCO and to the Council of Europe, Strasbourg. In this function, he represented the Turkish government in cases before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Judge Akay worked for many years as a lawyer in civil and criminal law. He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in 1972 from the Ankara University, Faculty of Law and in 1998, he obtained his Master’s Degree and a PhD in Human Rights from the Hacettepe University, Atatürk.