The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has appointed Mr. Pascal Besnier as Acting Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

The appointment took effect on 1 September 2012, the date of the departure of the previous Registrar, Adama Dieng, who after a decade of service to the ICTR was recently appointed Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide. Mr. Besnier has served the ICTR in various capacities since its inception.

A graduate of Paris’ Sorbonne University and a member of the Paris Bar Association, Mr. Besnier was one of the first defence counsel appointed to work on the trials at the ICTR in 1996. He continued as defence counsel until 2004, and was appointed as Chief of the Defence Counsel and Detention Management Section of the ICTR in November 2008.

In addition to continuing to hold this position, Mr. Besnier has served as Officer in Charge of the ICTR’s Judicial and Legal Services Division since April 2009. Mr. Besnier will serve as Acting Registrar during the recruitment and selection process of a new Registrar for the ICTR, who will be appointed by the Secretary-General after consultation with the ICTR President.