The Security Council of the United Nations has unanimously decided to increase the number of judges of the Appeals Chamber common to the two international criminal tribunals. The enlargement will be effected by the election of two additional judges to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Thereafter the President of ICTR will assign two of the eleven judges to sit in the Appeals Chamber.

In the preamble to Resolution 1329 (2000) adopted on 30 November 2000, the Security Council states that it is “Convinced of the need…. to increase the number of judges in the Appeals Chambers of the International Tribunal in order to enable the International Tribunals to expedite the conclusion of their work at the earliest possible date”. This measure will bring the number of judges sitting in the Appeals Chamber to seven, five of whom will sit on each appeal.

Welcoming the new Resolution, the President of the ICTR, Judge Navanethem Pillay, (South Africa) said: “The addition of two judges now permitted by the Security Council Resolution will considerably assist in the judges’ resolve to complete the 36 cases currently pending by the end of their current mandate in May 2003. The assignment of two judges of the ICTR to the Appeals Chamber in the Hague addresses a long felt need and follows upon requests made almost three years ago by the two former Presidents of both Tribunals to redress the absence of representation by ICTR Judges in the Appeals Chamber.”

The Security Council also requested the Secretary-General to make the practical arrangements for the election of the two additional judges as soon as possible. The election will be made by the General Assembly from a list of no less than four and no more than six candidates which will be established by the Security Council. The judges so elected will serve until the date of expiry of the mandates of the existing judges.

By the same Resolution, the Security Council decided to establish a pool of 27 ad litem judges to assist the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, (ICTY). President Pillay explained that since the Prosecutor had not submitted a projection of arrests of suspects for the ICTR, similar to the one she prepared for the ICTY, the ICTR judges did not request the provision of ad litem judges for the ICTR, as they were confident that they could complete a substantial number of the 36 cases by 2003.

The text of Resolution 1329 is available on the ICTR Website www.ictr.org.