Author: EDWARD QORRO
AfricaPress-Tanzania: UNITED Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Judge Carmel Agius to a second term of office as President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechani
Judge Agius’s term starts today and is expected to end on June 30, 2022, according to a statement released by the Mechanism’s office on Wednesday.
President Agius served as Mechanism President since January last year, having been a Judge of the Mechanism since it commenced operating in 2012.
He was also a Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), for sixteen years from 2001, serving as its Vice-President from November 2011 to November 2015, as well as its final President from November 2015 until December 2017.
Judge Agius was first elected to the ICTY by the United Nations General Assembly in March 2001.
As of 2009, he served as a Judge on the Appeals Chamber of both the ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), until the respective closure of the two Tribunals in 2015 and 2017.
During his tenure on the Appeals Chamber of the ad hoc Tribunals, Judge Agius presided over both ICTR and ICTY appeals in the Đorđević, Ntawukulilyayo, Renzaho, Prlić et al., and Stanišić & Župljanin cases.
He is credited for coordinating the drafting of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence for the Mechanism in 2010 and 2011, which were accepted by the United Nations Security Council and adopted by the Judges of the Mechanism.
The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism) was established by UN Security Council Resolution 1966 (2010) to complete the remaining work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which closed in 2015 and 2017, respectively.
The Mechanism has two branches, one in Arusha, Tanzania, and one in The Hague, Netherlands.
