Global perspective Human stories

Security Council allows judge in UN tribunal for Rwanda to work part-time

UN Photo/Mark Garten
UN Photo/Mark Garten
UN Photo/Mark Garten

Security Council allows judge in UN tribunal for Rwanda to work part-time

The Security Council today allowed one of the judges in the United Nations tribunal for the 1994 Rwandan genocide to work part-time and engage in another judicial occupation until the end of the year, under exceptional circumstances.

In authorizing Judge Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to work part-time, the Council, in a resolution, took note of the fact that upon the completion of the cases to which they are assigned, four permanent judges will be redeployed from the trial chamber to the appeals chamber and two permanent judges will leave the tribunal.

It also considered Judge Tuzmukhamedov’s commitment to ensuring timely delivery of judgment in the two cases in which he is currently involved.

The 15-member UN body underscored that the exceptional authorization shall not be considered as establishing a precedent.

The President of the ICTR shall have the responsibility to ensure that this arrangement is compatible with the independence and impartiality of the judge, does not give rise to conflicts of interest and does not delay the delivery of the judgment, the Council said in its resolution.

The ICTR was set up by the Security Council in the wake of the genocide, in which it is estimated that more 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and Hutu moderates were killed, mainly by machete, during a period of about 100 days starting on 6 April 1994.