The Secretary-General of the United Nations has appointed Mr. Mandiaye Niang from Senegal as permanent judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) following the resignation of Senegalese Judge Andrésia Vaz earlier this year.

The appointment is effective from 11 September 2013 until 31 December 2014, or until the completion of the cases to which Judge Niang will be assigned if sooner. Mr. Niang has served as the Regional Representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Southern Africa since April 2011. Prior to his appointment with UNODC, Mr. Niang was employed at the ICTR as Senior Legal Adviser to the trial chamber judges, and as Special Assistant to the Registrar.

From 1997-2011 Mr. Niang occupied various positions at the ICTR entailing the provision of legal and policy advice, assisting with the drafting of judicial decisions, and carrying out representation and administrative functions. Prior to his engagement with the ICTR and the United Nations system, Mr. Niang served successively as a judge and a prosecutor in the Regional Tribunal of Dakar, Senegal, and later as a Trial Attorney attached to the office of the Prosecutor General of the Senegalese Supreme Court. Mr. Niang holds a Master’s Degree in Law from the Université de Dakar and a Post Graduate Certificate from École Nationale d’Administration et de Magistrature in Dakar.

He has published over twenty articles in selective law reviews in French and English and co-authored several books on international humanitarian law. He is a visiting lecturer in a number of institutions, including the Dakar Centre de formation Judiciaire, the University of Rwanda, and the Institute of International Law attached to Makere University in Uganda.