Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, head of the Vietnamese Mission to the United Nations. (Photo: VNA)

The event, the first in-person meeting of the group at the UN headquarters since COVID-19 broke out in early 2020 in New York, drew Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Stephen Mathias, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) Judge Carmel Agius, and IRMCT Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz.

Opening the meeting, Ambassador Quy thanked members of the group for their cooperative and constructive attitude in supporting the IRMCT to fulfil all missions following UN resolutions and the mechanism’s operation regulations.

He affirmed the commitments of Vietnam, as the chair of the group, to supporting the increase of dialogues between the group and the Chair and the prosecutor of the mechanism to complete the mechanism’s tasks assigned by the UNSC, thus promoting the observance of the UN Charter and international law.

Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Stephen Mathias hailed the efforts of the judge, prosecutor and staff of the IRMCT in overcoming difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain and speed up the judging activities.

He also lauded the cooperative attitude and efforts of the group’s members, especially Vietnam’s performance as the Chair of the group in maintaining the group’s operations and dialogues with the mechanism amidst the complicated situation.

The Informal Working Group on International Tribunals was established in June 2000 to deal with a specific issue pertaining to the statute of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 (ICTY).

It was subsequently mandated to deal with other legal issues pertaining to ICTY as well as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Genocide and Other Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of Rwanda and Rwandan Citizens Responsible for Genocide and Other Such Violations Committed in the Territory of Neighbouring States between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994 (ICTR).

Apart from the working group, Vietnam is holding the Chairmanship of the UNSC’s South Sudan Sanctions Committee and the Lebanon Sanctions Committee.

In the group’s meeting in June last year, as the chair of the group, Vietnam proposed the UNSC to adopt Resolution 2529 (2020) on reappointing the prosecutor and reviewing the two-year operation of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT).

The next meeting of the group is scheduled in June 2022.

VNA

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