UN WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL FOR FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

GENERAL ASSEMBLY EXTENDS JUDGES' TERMS AT UN WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL FOR FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

In a bid to help the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia meet its target of trying all defendants by 2008, the General Assembly today extended the tenure of seven short-term judges and appointed two new temporary judges as well.

The General Assembly adopted a resolution, in response to an earlier Security Council resolution, approving the election of seven judges whose tenures were due to expire before the expected end of the trials they have been conducting.

The judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (<">http://www.un.org/icty/latest/index.htm">ICTY) whose terms have been extended until their trials have ended are: Vonimbolana Rasoazanany (Madagascar), Bert Swart (The Netherlands), Hans Henrik Brydensholt (Denmark), Albin Eser (Germany), Krister Thelin (Sweden), Christine Van Den Wyngaert (Belgium) and Joaquín Martín Canivell (Spain).

The two new short-term, or ad litem, judges who have been appointed are Gyorgy Szénási (Hungary), who will serve on a case due to start next week, and Claude Hanoteau (France), who will take over another case from a serving judge.

A pool of ad litem judges was created in 2001 to try to speed up the work of the ICTY, which has been based in The Hague in The Netherlands since its formation in 1993.

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