The Hague, 09 December 2014
The ICTY Outreach Programme welcomed today a group of five university lecturers from faculties in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Kosovo who came to The Hague for an intensive two-day study visit to the ICTY. The visit is part of the Youth Outreach Project and its aim is to provide the academics from the region with first-hand experience and information about the work of the Tribunal. The goal is for the lecturers to contribute to a more extensive inclusion of ICTY jurisprudence in law education in the region. The group attended a hearing in the Mladić case; listened to presentations and had extensive discussions with seasoned staff members from Chambers, Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) and the Registry.
The guests were welcomed by the ICTY Deputy Registrar Kate Mackintosh and ICTY Outreach Officer Nenad Golčevski. At the start of the visit the guests attended a hearing in the Mladić case, and then met with the Head of the Court Support Service Section, Gregory Townsend. In his presentation, Mr Townsend introduced the visiting lecturers to the Tribunal’s structure and talked about the various functions of the Registry. Also on their first day, the guests met with Judge Howard Morrison who talked about the ICTY sentencing practice and Associate Legal Officer in Chambers Christos Ravanides who discussed some of the Tribunal’s recent judgments, including those in Gotovina et al and Perišić cases.
The visitors then met with OTP representative, Elena Martin Salgado, who presented them with the challenges that the ICTY had to face in the prosecution of sexual violence and the jurisprudence made in Kunarac and Furundžija cases. The final presentation of the day was given by Helena Eggleston, Public Information Officer and Nenad Golčevski, who informed the guests about information and documents relevant for educators and researchers which are available through the ICTY and MICT websites, ICTY Court Records database and the ICTR/ICTY Case Law Database.
The second day, the guests met with Senior Appeals Council in the MICT OTP Barbara Goy who talked about the Joint Criminal Enterprise and discussed several cases in which this notion was applied, such as Tadić, Brđanin and Strugar. Later in the day the guests received information about the MICT establishment and mandate by Legal Officer in MICT Registry Andrew Begg. The visiting academics asked questions about the future of the ICTY archive and the possibility of moving it to the countries of the former Yugoslavia. The guests also met with Chambers Senior Legal Officer John Cubbon who talked about the ICTY jurisprudence in relation to genocide and genocidal intent.
At the end of the study visit a roundtable was organised about the place of ICTY jurisprudence in university education, where possibilities for the inclusion of lectures about the ICTY in the regular university curriculum were explored. Legal Officer in OTP, Aleksandar Kontić, together with Nenad Golčevski, took part in the round table discussion. The guests underlined lack of content related to the ICTY’s work in university curricula in the region and gave suggestions for activities and courses which could help improve this.
The visit was organised by the ICTY Outreach Programme.