UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will close its doors by year-end with remarkable legacy, said Judge Carmel Agius, president of the UN tribunal, on Wednesday.
"I can confirm to you and to all present that ... after 24 years the ICTY will formally close its doors on Dec. 31, 2017. We will have completed our mandate," Agius told a plenary session of the 72nd General Assembly in presentation of the tribunal's last annual report to the UN body.
"As we reflect on the work that the ICTY has accomplished, I recall that the tribunal blazed a trail of truly remarkable firsts: it was the first international criminal tribunal since the post-WWII Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals, the first tribunal ever established under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the first to indict a sitting head of state, and the first to have all-female principals," Agius said.
"In my view, the principal achievement of the tribunal, and its most important legacy, is its ground-breaking role in the fight against impunity and the successful fulfillment of its mandate to prosecute those who bear the greatest responsibility for the horrific crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia during the conflicts of the 1990s," he added.
Agius said the ICTY has issued more indictments than any other international criminal courts, and has successfully brought to justice 161 individuals in respect of serious violations of international humanitarian law. Unlike other courts, the ICTY will close with no outstanding fugitives for core crimes.
Numerous jurisprudential firsts have been equally remarkable, he added. The tribunal was the first to comprehensively address conflict-related sexual violence, the first to clarify the applicability of the laws and customs of war in non-international armed conflicts, and the first to affirm that the destruction of cultural heritage may amount to a crime against humanity.
The ICTY has developed not only jurisprudence but also tools, procedures, and programs to address specialized areas of international criminal law and practice, such as witness protection, state cooperation, and judicial efficiency, Agius said.
The tribunal has now completed its work in all but two substantive cases and the final verdicts for the two cases will be handed down on Nov. 22 for the trial case of Bosnian Serbian military commander Ratko Mladic, and on Nov. 29 for the appeal case of former Bosnian Croat leader Jadranko Prlic and five co-defendants, he added.
By Jan. 1, 2018, the tribunal will essentially have been liquidated, with all but a few residual liquidation tasks remaining. By then, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals will have assumed full responsibility for all residual functions of the ICTY, president of the UN tribunal said.
