| Press Release |
TRIBUNAL
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| (Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document) |
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The Hague, 03 May 2011
JKE/MOW/1403e
ICTY Conducts Training Session of Bosnian Legal Professionals
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| Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Today the Tribunal began a two-day training session with judges and prosecutors from the district courts and prosecutor’s offices in Banja Luka, Bijeljina, Doboj and East Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as part of the War Crimes Justice Project (WCJP).
The goal of the training, which is taking place at the Judicial and Prosecutorial Training Centre in Banja Luka, is to share the Tribunal’s institutional knowledge and specialised skills with jurisdictions in the region as a means of enhancing their capacity to handle complex war crimes cases.
The training is intended to strengthen the ability of the Tribunal’s local counterparts to locate and research ICTY information and materials relevant to their work. The training session will cover the use of electronic search tools such as the website, the ICTY Court Records Database and the Appeals Chambers Case Law Research Tool. It will also cover making requests to the ICTY for legal assistance and for variation of protective measures under the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence.
Commenting on the training session, Christopher Engels, the WCJP Regional Coordinator, said: "Those working on war crimes cases in the region face many challenges, from political pressure to a lack of support staff and funding. These challenges coupled with the complex nature of war crimes cases, make the work of these legal professionals extremely difficult.”
Engels added that “in responding to our local counterparts’ request for hands-on ICTY research training, our partners at the ICTY have addressed a real and urgent need. These trainings exemplify the practical ways in which we can support the hard work of the region's justice actors in their continued efforts to fairly and efficiently process war crimes cases.”
This is the second training session of legal professionals to be held in Banja Luka this year. Similar training has also taken place in Belgrade, Sarajevo, Zagreb, Podgorica and Osijek since the launch of the project in July 2010. Further training sessions are scheduled to be held in the region in the coming months.
The War Crimes Justice Project is a 4-million euro regional project funded by the European Union and carried out by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) in partnership with the ICTY, the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute and OSCE field operations.
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For more information please call Ms. Sanela Tunović, War Crimes Justice Project Outreach Officer at ++387 61 539 535 or email at wcjp [at] odihr.pl
For more information on the War Crimes Justice Project please visit http://www.icty.org/sid/240
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War Crimes Justice Project Partners |
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 This project is funded by the European Union |
Implemented by: |    |
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International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
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