This is the fourth and also final meeting chaired by Vietnam in its post as a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council in the 2020-2021 tenure.

leftcenterrightdel
Ambassador Pham Hai Anh

In his opening remarks, Anh thanked members of the working group for their cooperative and constructive contributions.

In the past two years, as the Chair of the working group, Vietnam has helped promote dialogue between the group and the Chair and the prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) to complete the mechanism’s tasks assigned by the UNSC, thus promoting the observance of the U.N. Charter and international law, he added.

Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Stephen Mathias hailed the efforts of the judge, and staff of the IRMCT in overcoming difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain and speed up the judging activities.

He also lauded the cooperative attitude and efforts of the group’s members, especially Vietnam’s performance as the Chair of the group in maintaining the group’s operations and dialogues with the mechanism amidst the complicated situation.

The Informal Working Group on International Tribunals was established in June 2000 to deal with a specific issue pertaining to the statute of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 (ICTY).

It was subsequently mandated to deal with other legal issues pertaining to ICTY as well as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Genocide and Other Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of Rwanda and Rwandan Citizens Responsible for Genocide and Other Such Violations Committed in the Territory of Neighboring States between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994 (ICTR).

Source: VNA