DR.

MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW
2016

FINAL DRAFT
PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

SUBMITTED BY:

POOJA KUSUM

BALLb.(Hons.) 4th SEM

ROLL NO. - 90

SUBMITTED TO:

Dr. A.P.SINGH

Associate Prof. (Law)

Dr. RMLNLU, Lucknow

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my deep gratitude and regards to our Professor Dr.A.P.SINGH and
junior Professor Mr.Abdulla Nasir, my research supervisor, for his patient guidance, constant
encouragement and useful critiques of this research work.

I would also like to extend my deepest regards to our Respected Dean of Academics
Prof. C.M. Jariwala for his valuable advice and immense support. I would also like to thank
our Honourable Vice Chancellor Sir Prof. Gurdip Singh, for supporting us in our various
pursuits which ultimately helped us to freely conduct our researches in a conducive
environment.

Lastly, I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to the almighty, my friends
and family for their constant support and motivation throughout this project and for giving
me their valuable advice whenever it was needed.

With Deep Regards,

Pooja Kusum

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 INDEX

Introduction

Establishment of Tribunal

Accomplishment

Composition of Tribunal

Conclusion

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 INTRODUCTION

The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations
of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia
since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a body of the United Nations established to prosecute
serious crimes committed during the Yugoslav Wars, and to try their perpetrators. The
tribunal is an ad hoc court which is located in The Hague, Netherlands.

The Court was established by Resolution 827 of the United Nations Security Council, which
was passed on 25 May 1993. It has jurisdiction over four clusters of crimes committed on the
territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991: grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions,
violations of the laws or customs of war, genocide, and crimes against humanity. The
maximum sentence it can impose is life imprisonment. Various countries have signed
agreements with the UN to carry out custodial sentences.

The final indictments were issued in December 2004, the last of which were confirmed and
unsealed in the spring of 2005. The Tribunal had aimed to complete all trials by the end of
2012 and all appeals by 2015, with the exception of Radovan Karadiwhose trial was
expected to end in 2014 and Ratko Mladi and Goran Hadi, who were not arrested until
2011.

The United Nations Security Council called upon the Tribunal to finish its work by 31
December 2014 to prepare for its closure and transfer of its responsibilities to
the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals which began functioning for
the ICTY branch on 1 July 2013. The Tribunal will conduct and complete all outstanding first
instance trials, including those of Karadi, Mladi and Hadi. It will conduct and complete
all appeal proceedings for which the notice of appeal against the judgement or sentence was
filed before 1 July 2013. Any appeals for which notice is filed after that date will be handled
by the Residual Mechanism. Hadi became the last of 161 indicted fugitives to be arrested
after Serbian President Boris Tadi announced his arrest on 20 July 2011.

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 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TRIBUNAL
The late 1980s and early 1990s witnessed dramatic political and social change across eastern
Europe and the Soviet Union with the collapse of the majority of communist systems and
resurgence of nationalism. In Yugoslavia properly referred to as the Socialist Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia up until formally dissolving in 1992 a series of economic and
political crises led ultimately to the violent breakup of the country.

In the early 1990s, a brief flare up of hostilities in Slovenia was soon followed by brutal
conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The chronology of the wars in the former
Yugoslavia was completed with armed conflicts in Kosovo and the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) in 1998-99 and 2001, respectively.

The mass atrocities committed first in Croatia and later in Bosnia and Herzegovina spurred
the international community into action. As early as September 1991, the United Nations
took note of the situation and urged parties to the conflict to abide by international law.
Thousands were injured and killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced. Reports about
massacres of thousands of civilians, rape and torture in detention camps, terrible scenes from
cities under siege and the suffering of hundreds of thousands expelled from their homes,
moved the UN in late 1992 to establish a Commission of Experts to examine the situation on
the ground.

In its report, the Commission documented horrific crimes and provided the Secretary-General
with evidence of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other violations of
international humanitarian law. Its findings led the Security Council to decide that it would
establish an international tribunal for persons responsible for these crimes in order to stop the
violence and safeguard international peace and security.

On 25 May 1993, the UN Security Council passed resolution 827 formally establishing the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, known as the ICTY. This
resolution contained the Statute of the ICTY which determined the Tribunals jurisdiction and
organizational structure, as well as the criminal procedure in general terms. This was the first
war crimes court established by the UN and the first international war crimes tribunal since
the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals. This date marked the beginning of the end of impunity
for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.

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 ACCOMPLISHMENT

In 2004, the ICTY published a list of five successes which it claimed it had accomplished:

1. "Spearheading the shift from impunity to accountability", pointing out that, until very
recently, it was the only court judging crimes committed as part of the Yugoslav
conflict, since prosecutors in the former Yugoslavia were, as a rule, reluctant to
prosecute such crimes;
2. "Establishing the facts", highlighting the extensive evidence-gathering and lengthy
findings of fact that Tribunal judgments produced;
3. "Bringing to justice thousands of victims and giving them a voice", pointing out the
large number of witnesses that had been brought before the Tribunal;
4. "The accomplishments in international law", describing the fleshing out of several
international criminal law concepts which had not been ruled on since the Nuremberg
Trials;
5. "Strengthening the Rule of Law", refers to the Tribunal's role in promoting the use of
international standards in war crimes prosecutions by former Yugoslav republics.

COMPOSITION OF TRIBUNAL
There are 20 permanent judges and three ad litem judges who serve on the Tribunal.

UN member and observer states can each submit up to two nominees of different nationalities
to the UN Secretary-General. The UN Secretary-General submits this list to the UN Security
Council which selects from 28 to 42 nominees and submits these nominees to the UN
General Assembly. The UN General Assembly then elects 14 judges from that list.[21] Judges
serve for 4 years and are eligible for re-election. The UN Secretary-General appoints
replacements in case of vacancy for the remainder of the term of office concerned.

On 21 October 2015, Judge Carmel Agius of Malta was elected President of the ICTY and
Liu Daqun of China was elected Vice-President; they will assume their new positions on 17
November 2015. His predecessors were Antonio Cassese of Italy (199397), Gabrielle Kirk
McDonald of the United States (199799), Claude Jorda of France (19992002), Meron

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(again; 200205), Fausto Pocar of Italy (200508), Patrick Robinson of Jamaica (200811),
and Theodor Meron of the United States (201115).

CONCLUSION

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has, through its
jurisprudence, extensively elaborated the elements of crimes under its Statute, such as the
concept of grave breaches, the objective and subjective elements of crimes against humanity,
the protected group within the definition of genocide, and the definitions of specific offences,
including that of torture, extermination, enslavement and deportation.

In its precedent-setting decisions on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, the
Tribunal has shown that an individuals senior position can no longer protect them from
prosecution. It has now shown that those suspected of bearing the greatest responsibility for
atrocities committed can be called to account, as well as that guilt should be individualized,
protecting entire communities from being labeled as collectively responsible.

The Tribunal has laid the foundations for what is now the accepted norm for conflict
resolution and post-conflict development across the globe, specifically that leaders suspected
of mass crimes will face justice. The Tribunal has proved that efficient and transparent
international justice is possible.

Undoubtedly, the Tribunals work has had a major impact on the states of the former
Yugoslavia. Simply by removing some of the most senior and notorious criminals and
holding them accountable the Tribunal has been able to lift the taint of violence, contribute to
ending impunity and help pave the way for reconciliation.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Online sources:

http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/icty/icty.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Tribunal_for_the_former_Yugo
slavia
http://www.icty.org/