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UN tribunal for Rwanda requests more judges to tackle heavy caseload

UN tribunal for Rwanda requests more judges to tackle heavy caseload

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has asked the United Nations Security Council and the General Assembly for a pool of ad litem - or short-term - judges to help accelerate its work.

The Tribunal is seeking 18 judges to handle work both in trials and pre-trial proceedings, according to a letter released today at UN Headquarters in New York, The by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which forwards the request by the ICTR President, Judge Navanethem Pillay, notes that preliminary estimated cost of setting up the short-term judges for the 2002-2003 biennium would be about $23.6 million.

Such a pool of ad litem judges has already been set up for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.