| Press Release |
REGISTRY
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| (Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document) |
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The Hague, 25 February 2011
AL/MOW/1393e
The Outreach Programme Welcomes Interns from the Former Yugoslavia
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The ICTY’s Outreach Programme recently welcomed the fourth generation of young professionals from the region of the former Yugoslavia as part of the Regional Internship Programme.
As part of the programme this year, seven young professionals will have a chance to acquire hands-on experience of legal and communications work in all three organs of the Tribunal.
The Regional Internship Programme was established in 2007 as a joint project between the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) and the Outreach Programme. The programme is open to graduate students and those who are in their final year of study, with backgrounds in Law, History, Political Science or other Humanities subjects. Interns from Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo take part in a five-month internship in The Hague, and a further three-month internship at their respective national war crimes courts/prosecutors’ offices or local institutions and organisations dealing with war crimes.
The aim of this programme is to provide participants with an opportunity to learn about international humanitarian law through the work of the ICTY and to transfer that knowledge back to the legal systems in the region. Once the participants have completed the programme, they design a strategy for promoting the ICTY and national war crimes trials in their home countries. Thereafter, they take part in the YIHR’s educational and training programmes to pass on the knowledge gained as a result of their participation in the Regional Internship Programme.
Since 2007, three groups of interns, comprising of a total of 33 young professionals, have completed their training at the ICTY. Their subsequent engagement in their respective countries proved that this project significantly contributes to the development of civil society and strengthening of the rule of law.
The Regional Internship Programme is mainly supported by the Swiss Confederation, represented by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, as well as the US Embassy in Serbia.
The Outreach Programme was created in 1999 with the purpose of improving the understanding of the work of the Tribunal and its relevance in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. As the first programme of its sort, the Tribunal set a precedent for other criminal tribunals which have since set up similar programmes.
The Programme is generously supported by the European Union.
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For more information on the Youth Initiative for Human Rights please visit http://yihr.org/en/
For more information on Outreach, please visit:
http://www.icty.org/sections/Outreach
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International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
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