ICTY and ICTR Moving Towards Closure (January 27, 2015) [1]
On January 27, 2015, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) began the transfer of its judicial documents to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (the Mechanism). The Mechanism was established by Security Council Resolution 1966 [3] (2010) “to carry out a number of essential functions of the Tribunals, including the trial of fugitives who are among the most senior leaders suspected of being most responsible for crimes, after the closure of the Tribunals.” According to the press release [4], the ICTY’s records, which include “a complete index, as well as comprehensive lists of exhibits, filings, transcripts and witnesses, in both a public and confidential version,” will be “stored in a secure environment with the appropriate access controls.” The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) indicated in a press release [5] issued on February 2, 2015, that the Mechanism has already taken over some of its functions “including the enforcement of sentences of those convicted and sentenced by the Tribunal, the tracking, arrest and prosecution of the three top priority fugitives who remain at large as well as the care and protection of witnesses.”