At their 23rd Plenary Session, the Judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) welcomed the adoption, on 30 November 2000, of resolution 1329 by the United Nations Security Council, establishing a pool of 27 ad litem judges and enlarging the Appeals Chamber of both the ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) by two members.

The Security Council voted unanimously in favour of the resolution and in doing so, decided to amend articles 12, 13 and 14 of the ICTY Statute.

In the resolution, the members of the Security Council stated that they were

"convinced of the need to establish a pool of ad litem judges in the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and to increase the number of judges in the Appeals Chambers of the International Tribunals in order to enable the International Tribunals to expedite the conclusion of their work at the earliest possible date,"

THE ICTY SATISFIED

The President of the Tribunal, Judge Claude Jorda, gave the following reaction:

"This resolution, which is the outcome of more than a year of work, approves the implementation of the ad litem judges mechanism and the creation of two additional posts for both the ICTY and ICTR Appeals Chambers. We have every reason to be satisfied.

As I had the opportunity to indicate to the members of the Security Council, we are now under an absolute obligation to produce results which will once again require a great deal of effort and, above all, close cooperation among the three organs of the Tribunal."

The adoption of this resolution follows the submission of a report to the UN Secretary-General, by President Jorda, in May 2000 on behalf of the Judges at the ICTY.

In the report, President Jorda reviewed the current situation regarding the conduct of trials before the Tribunal and projected how its activities were likely to evolve in the future, both in the medium and longer term. He concluded that, should the Tribunal maintain its current structure and should it continue to function in accordance with its existing procedures, it would need considerable time to complete the trials of all of those persons who are currently being and will be prosecuted. He proposed three measures to address this situation.

The first of these suggested measures was to enhance and conduct in ‘real time’ the pre-trial procedure by making more extensive use of the Senior Legal Officers, thus allowing the judges to concentrate on trials.

The second measure involved the creation of a pool of ad litem judges, from which the Tribunal could draw to supplement the existing three Trial Chambers.

The third of the measures was to enlarge the Appeals Chambers of both Tribunals by adding two judges, drawn from the Trial Chambers of the Rwanda Tribunal.

AD LITEM JUDGES

Composition of the Chambers

The new composition of the Chambers, as set out in an annex to resolution 1329, will be as follows:

1. The Chambers shall be composed of 16 permanent independent judges, no two of whom may be nationals of the same State, and a maximum at any one time of nine ad litem independent judges appointed in accordance with article 13 ter, paragraph 2, of the Statute, no two of whom may be nationals of the same State.

2. Three permanent judges and a maximum at any one time of six ad litem judges shall be members of each Trial Chamber. Each Trial Chamber to which ad litem judges are assigned may be divided into sections of three judges each, composed of both permanent and ad litem judges. A section of a Trial Chamber shall have the same powers and responsibilities as a Trial Chamber under the Statute and shall render judgement in accordance with the same rules.

3. Seven of the permanent judges shall be members of the Appeals Chamber. The Appeals Chamber shall, for each appeal, be composed of five of its members.

Election and appointment

In adopting resolution 1329, the Security Council requested "the Secretary-General to make practical arrangements…for the election as soon as possible of 27 ad litem judges in accordance with Article 13 ter of the Statute of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia".

UN Member States will be asked to nominate candidates to fill the new judges’ positions. The judges will then be elected by the General Assembly, from a list submitted by the Security Council. The procedure for selection and election of the ad litem judges is set out in detail in an annex to resolution 1329.