| Press Release |
TRIBUNAL
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| (Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document) |
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The Hague, 04 March 2011
VE/MOW/1394e
ICTY Delivers New Set of Transcripts to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia
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The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia today delivered approximately 2,500 pages of transcripts produced in local languages to the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Croatia.
The transcripts were delivered as part of the War Crimes Justice Project (WCJP), which aims to enhance the capacity of regional judiciaries to handle complex war crimes cases and assist the transfer of knowledge and materials from the ICTY to the former Yugoslavia. The provision of transcripts in the local languages is expected to improve the ability of legal practitioners in the region to access and utilise testimony given before the ICTY.
The transcripts are being produced in the local languages from the audio recordings of ICTY court hearings. Until October 2010, the trial transcripts were available only in English and French, the official languages of the ICTY.
Dragan Novosel, Croatian Deputy State Prosecutor, explained how his office values the cooperation established with the ICTY through the Project, including the receipt of priority transcripts produced in the local languages. “Thanks to this project, prosecutors in Croatia can more easily assess the probative value of the available ICTY material and use them in war crimes proceedings currently under way before national courts”, he said. Deputy State Prosecutor Novosel added that “the project significantly facilitates the accomplishment of the common goal of prosecuting war crimes committed during the 1990s on the territory of the former Yugoslavia by the prosecutors in the region.”
Over 4,000 pages of B/C/S transcripts already produced as part of the project are now available on the Tribunal’s Internet Court Records database (ICR). Additional transcripts will be uploaded on the ICR in the coming months, with the aim of publishing the targeted 60,000 pages of transcripts by the end of 2011. Transcripts can be accesses via the following link on the ICTY’s website: http://icr.icty.org.
Since the launch of the WCJP in September 2010, the ICTY has delivered 7,000 pages of public trial transcripts to the authorities in Croatia, Serbia and BiH.
The War Crimes Justice Project is a 4-million euro regional project funded by the European Union and carried out by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (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 on the project please contact Ms. Sanela Tunović,
the Outreach Officer for the War Crimes Justice Project at +387 61 539 535 or 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: |    |