The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal was an ''

ad hoc ''Ad hoc'' is a List of Latin phrases, Latin phrase meaning literally for this. In English language, English, it typically signifies a solution designed for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a Generalization, generalized solution ...

'' court located in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. It was established by Resolution 827 of the

United Nations Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

, which was passed on 25 May 1993. It had

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' and 'speech' or 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, the concept of jurisdiction applies at multiple level ...

over four clusters of crimes committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991: grave breaches of the

Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, The original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian t ...

, violations of the

laws or customs of war The law of war is a component of international law that regulates the conditions for initiating war (''jus ad bellum'') and the conduct of hostilities (''jus in bello''). Laws of war define sovereignty and nationhood, states and territories, ...

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

, and

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...

. The maximum sentence that it could impose was

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

. Various countries signed agreements with the United Nations to carry out custodial sentences. A total of 161 persons were indicted; the final indictments were issued in December 2004, the last of which were confirmed and unsealed in the spring of 2005. The final fugitive, Goran Hadžić, was arrested on 20 July 2011.Serbia's last war crimes fugitive arrested
Al Jazeera.net, 20 July 2011. The final judgment was issued on 29 November 2017 and the institution formally ceased to exist on 31 December 2017. Residual functions of the ICTY, including the oversight of sentences and consideration of any appeal proceedings initiated since 1 July 2013, are under the jurisdiction of a successor body, the

International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) or the MICT in Kinyarwanda, also known simply as the Mechanism, is an international court established by the United Nations Security Council in 2010 to perform the remaining fun ...

(IRMCT).

History

Creation

United Nations Security Council Resolution 808 of 22 February 1993 decided that an "international tribunal shall be established for the prosecution of persons responsible for serious violations of

international humanitarian law International humanitarian law (IHL), also referred to as the laws of armed conflict or the laws of war, is the law that regulates the conduct of war (''wikt:jus in bello, jus in bello''). It is a branch of international law that seeks to limit ...

committed in the territory of the former

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

since 1991", and called on the Secretary-General to "submit for consideration by the Council ... a report on all aspects of this matter, including specific proposals and where appropriate options ... taking into account suggestions put forward in this regard by Member States". The court was originally proposed by German Foreign Minister

Klaus Kinkel Klaus Kinkel (17 December 1936 – 4 March 2019)
Resolution 827 of 25 May 1993 approved th
S/25704 report
of the secretary-general and adopted the Statute of the International Tribunal annexed to it, formally creating the ICTY. It was to have jurisdiction over four clusters of crimes committed on the territory of the former

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

since 1991: #Grave breaches of the

#Violations of the

Genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

Crime against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...

. The maximum sentence the ICTY could impose for these crimes was

Implementation

In 1993 the internal infrastructure of the ICTY was built. 17 states had signed an agreement with the ICTY to carry out custodial sentences. 1993–1994: In the first year of its existence, the tribunal laid the foundations for its existence as a judicial organ. It established the legal framework for its operations by adopting the rules of procedure and evidence, as well as its rules of detention and directive for the assignment of defence counsel. Together, these rules established a legal aid system for the tribunal. As the ICTY was a part of the United Nations and was the first ''international'' court for ''criminal'' justice, the development of a juridical infrastructure was considered quite a challenge. However, after the first year, the first ICTY judges had drafted and adopted all the rules for court proceedings. 1994–1995: The ICTY established its offices within the Aegon Insurance Building in The Hague (which was, at the time, still partially in use by Aegon) and detention facilities in Scheveningen in The Hague (the Netherlands). The ICTY hired many staff members and by July 1994, the Office of the Prosecutor had sufficient staff to begin field investigations. By November 1994, the first indictments were presented to the court and confirmed, and in 1995, the staff numbered over 200 persons from all over the world.

Operation

In 1994 the first indictment was issued against the Bosnian-Serb concentration camp commander Dragan Nikolić. This was followed on 13 February 1995 by two indictments comprising 21 individuals which were issued against a group of 21 Bosnian-Serbs charged with committing atrocities against Muslim and Croat civilian prisoners. While the war in the former Yugoslavia was still raging, the ICTY prosecutors showed that an international court was viable. However, no accused was arrested. The court confirmed eight indictments against 46 individuals and issued arrest warrants. Bosnian Serb indictee Duško Tadić became the subject of the tribunal's first trial. Tadić was arrested by German police in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

in 1994 for his alleged actions in the Prijedor region in Bosnia-Herzegovina (especially his actions in the Omarska, Trnopolje and Keraterm detention camps). He made his first appearance before the ICTY Trial Chamber on 26 April 1995, and pleaded not guilty to all of the charges in the indictment. 1995–1996: Between June 1995 and June 1996, 10 public indictments had been confirmed against a total of 33 individuals. Six of the newly indicted persons were transferred in the tribunal's detention unit. In addition to Duško Tadic, by June 1996 the tribunal had Tihomir Blaškić, Dražen Erdemović, Zejnil Delalić, Zdravko Mucić, Esad Landžo and Hazim Delić in custody. Erdemović became the first person to enter a guilty plea before the tribunal's court. Between 1995 and 1996, the ICTY dealt with miscellaneous cases involving several detainees, which never reached the trial stage.

Indictees and accomplishments

The tribunal indicted 161 individuals between 1997 and 2004 and completed proceedings with them as follows: * 111 had trials completed by the ICTY: ** 21 were acquitted by the ICTY: *** 18 acquittals have stood; *** 1 was originally acquitted by the ICTY, but convicted on appeal by the IRMCT of one count (and sentenced to time served) *** 2 were originally acquitted by the ICTY, but following a successful appeal by the prosecution the acquittals were overturned and a retrial is being conducted by the IRMCT; and ** 90 were convicted and sentenced by the ICTY: *** 87 were transferred to 14 different states where they served their prison sentences, had sentences that amounted to time spent in detention during trial, or died after conviction: **** 20 remain imprisoned; **** 58 completed their sentences; **** 9 died while completing their sentences or after conviction awaiting transfer *** 2 were convicted and sentenced, and remain in IRMCT detention awaiting transfer; and *** 1 was convicted and sentenced, but has filed an appeal to the IRMCT that is being considered * 13 had their cases transferred to courts in: ** Bosnia and Herzegovina (10); ** Croatia (2); and ** Serbia (1) * 37 had their cases terminated prior to trial completion, because ** the indictments were withdrawn (20); or ** the indictees died before or after transfer to the Tribunal (17). The indictees ranged from common soldiers to generals and police commanders all the way to prime ministers.

Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Милошевић, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugos ...

was the first sitting head of state indicted for war crimes. Other "high level" indictees included Milan Babić, former president of the Republika Srpska Krajina; Ramush Haradinaj, former

Prime Minister of Kosovo A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

;

Radovan Karadžić Radovan Karadžić ( sr-Cyrl, Радован Караџић, ; born 19 June 1945) is a Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Serb politician who was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal ...

, former President of the Republika Srpska; Ratko Mladić, former Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army; and Ante Gotovina (acquitted), former General of the Croatian Army. The very first hearing at the ICTY was a referral request in the Tadić case on 8 November 1994. Croat Serb General and former president of the Republic of Serbian Krajina Goran Hadžić was the last fugitive wanted by the tribunal to be arrested on 20 July 2011. An additional 23 individuals have been the subject of contempt proceedings. In 2004, the ICTY published a list of five accomplishments "in justice and law": # "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; # "Establishing the facts", highlighting the extensive evidence-gathering and lengthy findings of fact that tribunal judgments produced; # "Bringing justice to thousands of victims and giving them a voice", pointing out the large number of witnesses that had been brought before the tribunal; # "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; # "Strengthening the Rule of Law", referring to the tribunal's role in promoting the use of international standards in war crimes prosecutions by former Yugoslav republics.

Closure

The United Nations Security Council passed resolutions 1503 in August 2003 and

1534 Year 1534 ( MDXXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events January–March * January 15 – The Parliament of England passes the '' Act Respecting the Oath to the Succession'', recognising the mar ...

in March 2004, which both called for the completion of all cases at both the ICTY and its sister tribunal, the

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR; ; ) was an international court, international ''ad-hoc'' court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in United Nations Security Council Resolution 955, Resolutio ...

(ICTR) by 2010. In December 2010, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1966, which established the

(IRMCT), a body intended to gradually assume residual functions from both the ICTY and the ICTR as they wound down their mandate. Resolution 1966 called upon the tribunal to finish its work by 31 December 2014 to prepare for its closure and the transfer of its responsibilities. In a ''Completion Strategy Report'' issued in May 2011, the ICTY indicated that it aimed to complete all trials by the end of 2012 and complete all appeals by 2015, with the exception of

whose trial was expected to end in 2014 and Ratko Mladić and Goran Hadžić, who were still at large at that time and were not arrested until later that year. The IRMCT's ICTY branch began functioning on 1 July 2013. Per the Transitional Arrangements adopted by the UN Security Council, the ICTY was to conduct and complete all outstanding first-instance trials, including those of Karadžić, Mladić and Hadžić. The ICTY would also conduct and complete all appeal proceedings for which the notice of appeal against the judgement or sentence was filed before 1 July 2013. The IRMCT will handle any appeals for which notice is filed after that date. The final ICTY trial to be completed in the first instance was that of Ratko Mladić, who was convicted on 22 November 2017. The final case to be considered by the ICTY was an appeal proceeding encompassing six individuals, whose sentences were upheld on 29 November 2017.

Organization

While operating, the tribunal employed around 900 staff. Its organisational components were Chambers, Registry and the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP). ICTY 2006-01-16

Prosecutors

The Prosecutor was responsible for investigating crimes, gathering evidence and prosecutions and was head of the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP). The Prosecutor was appointed by the UN Security Council upon nomination by the UN secretary-general. The last prosecutor was Serge Brammertz. Previous Prosecutors have been Ramón Escovar Salom of

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

(1993–1994), however, he never took up that office,

Richard Goldstone Richard Joseph Goldstone (born 26 October 1938) is a South African retired judge who served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from July 1994 to October 2003. He joined the bench as a judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa, first i ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

(1994–1996), Louise Arbour of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

(1996–1999), and Carla Del Ponte of

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

(1999–2007). Richard Goldstone, Louise Arbour and Carla Del Ponte also simultaneously served as the Prosecutor of the

until 2003. Graham Blewitt of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

served as the Deputy Prosecutor from 1994 until 2004. David Tolbert, the president of the

International Center for Transitional Justice The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) was founded in 2001 as a non-profit organization dedicated to pursuing accountability for mass atrocity and human rights abuse through transitional justice mechanisms. ICTJ officially open ...

, was also appointed Deputy Prosecutor of the ICTY in 2004.

Chambers

Chambers encompassed the

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

s and their aides. The tribunal operated three Trial Chambers and one Appeals Chamber. The president of the tribunal was also the presiding judge of the Appeals Chamber.

Judges

At the time of the court's dissolution, there were seven permanent judges and one ''ad hoc'' judge who served on the tribunal. A total of 86 judges have been appointed to the tribunal from 52 United Nations member states. Of those judges, 51 were permanent judges, 36 were ''ad litem'' judges, and one was an ''ad hoc'' judge. Note that one judge served as both a permanent and ''ad litem'' judge, and another served as both a permanent and ''ad hoc'' judge. UN member and observer states could each submit up to two nominees of different nationalities to the UN secretary-general. The UN secretary-general submitted this list to the UN Security Council which selected from 28 to 42 nominees and submitted these nominees to the UN General Assembly. The UN General Assembly then elected 14 judges from that list. Judges served for four years and were eligible for re-election. The UN secretary-general appointed replacements in case of vacancy for the remainder of the term of office concerned. On 21 October 2015, Judge Carmel Agius of

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

was elected president of the ICTY and Liu Daqun of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

was elected vice-president; they assumed their positions on 17 November 2015. Agius's predecessors were Antonio Cassese of

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

(1993–1997), Gabrielle Kirk McDonald of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

(1997–1999), Claude Jorda of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

(1999–2002), Theodor Meron of the

(2002–2005), Fausto Pocar of

(2005–2008), Patrick Robinson of

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

(2008–2011), and Theodor Meron (2011–2015).

Registry

The Registry was responsible for handling the administration of the tribunal; activities included keeping court records, translating court documents, transporting and accommodating those who appear to testify, operating the Public Information Section, and such general duties as payroll administration, personnel management and procurement. It was also responsible for the Detention Unit for indictees being held during their trial and the Legal Aid program for indictees who cannot pay for their own defence. It was headed by the Registrar, a position occupied over the years by Theo van Boven of the

(February 1994 to December 1994), Dorothée de Sampayo Garrido-Nijgh of the Netherlands (1995–2000), Hans Holthuis of the Netherlands (2001–2009), and John Hocking of

(May 2009 to December 2017).

Detention facilities

Those defendants on trial and those who were denied a provisional release were detained at the United Nations Detention Unit on the premises of the Penitentiary Institution Haaglanden, location Scheveningen in Belgisch Park, a suburb of

, located some 3 km by road from the courthouse. The indicted were housed in private cells which had a toilet, shower, radio, satellite TV, personal computer (without internet access) and other luxuries. They were allowed to phone family and friends daily and could have conjugal visits. There was also a library, a gym and various rooms used for religious observances. The inmates were allowed to cook for themselves. All of the inmates mixed freely and were not segregated on the basis of nationality. As the cells were more akin to a university residence instead of a jail, some had derisively referred to the ICT as the "Hague Hilton". The reason for this luxury relative to other prisons is that the first president of the court wanted to emphasise that the indictees were innocent until proven guilty.

Controversies

Criticisms of the court include: The critique concerning the ICTY can be divided into claims pertaining to its creation, the fairness of its prosecution (who was accused and whom the prosecution failed to accuse although it should have issued indictments), trial fairness (who was sentenced, who was accused and whom the chambers failed to sentence or acquit although they should have done so) and the fairness of the procedures (did the parties have equal rights and equal opportunities to bring their evidence and arguments) and the court's efficiency (how much time and resources did the court use to achieve its aims – and did it achieve these aims). Some researchers have argued the ICTY was biased, but could not reasonably avoid bias, because of the highly political and ethnically polarised environment in which it had to work. Usually, as Mirko Klarin has set out, the ethnic or national community, which sided with an accused, regarded his (or, in a few cases, her) trial as unfair assuming him to be innocent, while it regarded trials against its former enemies as a priori as justified. Under such circumstances, as Bachmann and Fatić have argued, the only way to avoid accusations of bias, would have been to indict either nobody, or all those, whom the ethnic communities in postwar Yugoslavia regarded as guilty – neither way was feasible for the ICTY. Other researchers have emphasized some of the harsh criticism against the ICTY (and partly also the ICTR) to stem from its organs' reluctance to openly accept and enforce its political rather than judicial mandate: the tribunal pretended to do a judicial job while actually (and inevitably so) doing a political job by judging politicians and militaries who otherwise would have enjoyed impunity in their home countries. These critics have instead stipulated international criminal tribunals should endorse their political mission and should not even try to hide it and instead of selecting indictments and accused persons according to criteria of gravity which reflect the alleged share of an ethnic communities participation in atrocities, they should indict the same number of leaders of each community involved in atrocities at the beginning and leave the question open which community they regard as collective victim or collective perpetrator of these atrocities. As Bachmann and Fatić have shown, this was rather an exercise of collective stereotyping than a diagnosis rooted in thorough statistical rigor about perpetrators and victimhood. Criticism concerning the ICTY's creation: * Some authors have argued (almost from the ICTY's beginning) the UN Security Council lacked the competence to create a tribunal, because the UN-Charter does not grant it the right to create judicial institutions at all. Some of the defendants, such as

, claimed that the court has no legal authority because it was established by the

UN Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

instead of the

UN General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its 79th session, its powers, ...

and so had not been created on a broad international basis. The tribunal was established on the basis of

Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter sets out the UN Security Council's powers to maintain peace. It allows the Council to "determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and to take military a ...

; the relevant portion of which reads "the Security Council can take measures to maintain or restore international peace and security". The legal criticism has been succinctly stated in
memorandum
issued by Austrian Professor Hans Köchler, which was submitted to the president of the Security Council in 1999. British Conservative Party MEP Daniel Hannan has called for the court to be abolished, claiming it is anti-democratic and a violation of national sovereignty. British author John Laughland has levelled similar criticism mainly focusing on the Milosevic Trial. Criticism concerning the fairness of the prosecution: * Carla Del Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the tribunal, said in 2021 that the US did not want the ICTY to scrutinise war crimes committed by the

Kosovo Liberation Army The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA; , UÇK) was an Albanians, ethnic Albanian separatist militia that sought the separation of Kosovo, the vast majority of which is inhabited by Albanians, from the Republic of Serbia (1992–2006), Republic of R ...

. According to her,

Madeleine Albright Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Körbelová, later Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political science, political scientist who served as the 64th United States Secretary of State, United S ...

, the United States secretary of state at the time, told her to slow down the investigation of Ramush Haradinaj. * Michael Mandel, William Blum and others accused the court of having a pro-NATO bias due to its refusal to prosecute NATO officials and politicians for war crimes. Bachmann and Fatić have shown how the prosecution blurred existing ICTY procedures to avoid indictment NATO officials despite the existing prima faciae evidence about war crimes. It did so under intense pressure from NATO representatives. * Bachmann and Fatić have shown how the prosecution failed to indict high ranking politicians and militaries mentioned in other indictments as co-perpetrators, because they agreed to assist the prosecution or agreed to testify against other accused persons. According to Hoare, a former employee at the ICTY, an investigative team worked on indictments of senior members of the "joint criminal enterprise", including not only Milošević but also

Veljko Kadijević Veljko Kadijević ( sr-Cyrl, Вељко Кадијевић; 21 November 1925 – 2 November 2014) was a Serbian General officer, general of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). He was the Minister of Defence in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugo ...

, Blagoje Adžić, Borisav Jović, Branko Kostić, Momir Bulatović and others. However, Hoare claims that, due to Carla del Ponte's intervention, these drafts were rejected, and the indictment limited to Milošević alone. Reducing the indictment charges after the arrest of Ratko Mladić, Croatian officials publicly condemned chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz for his announcement that the former Bosnian Serb General would be tried solely for crimes allegedly committed in Bosnia, not in Croatia. Criticism concerning trial fairness: To create a formalistic impression of fairness, trial chambers often divided the anticipated time of trial into equal parts for the prosecution and the defense. But behind this façade of equality, there were some structural deficits which played out to the detriment of the defense. First of all, the defense was no formal part of the tribunal; the ICTY statute did not mention the defense as an organ of the tribunal and defense lawyers did not have access to the securitized part of the ICTY building, but instead had to work outside, having only a small room in the lobby at their disposal. While the prosecution could draw from the tribunal resources when conducting investigations and invoke the authority of the tribunal in contacts with national jurisdictions (demanding access to documents and witnesses and the surrender of suspects), the defense could only rely on other states' goodwill and informal contacts. For a long time (until the 2010s) neither prosecution nor chambers regarded it as the ICTY's job to prosecute contempt of court and false testimonies committed by witnesses. Their hesitance created incentives for the creation and expansion of perjurer networks and the creation of false evidence by either people, who wanted to see an accused sentenced (if he or she came from an enemy group) or acquitted (if he or she stemmed from their own ethnic background). Chambers regarded the prosecution of false testimony in court as being outside their core mandate and made contradictory decisions about who should prevent false testimony (the prosecution or the chambers) and how. Instead of initiating sanctions against perjurers, judges were eager to "explain false testimony away" as examples of cultural exceptions or trauma (Combs and Bachmann). * On 6 December 2006, the Tribunal at The Hague approved the use of

force-feeding Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a human or animal against their will. The term ''gavage'' (, , ) refers to supplying a substance by means of a small plastic feeding tube passed through the nose (nasogastric tube, nasogastric) or mouth (o ...

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

n politician

Vojislav Šešelj Vojislav Šešelj ( sr-Cyrl, Војислав Шешељ, ; born 11 October 1954) is a Serbian politician and convicted war criminal. He is the founder and president of the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS). Between 1998 and 2000, he was a D ...

. They decided it was not "torture, inhuman or degrading treatment if there is a medical necessity to do so... and if the manner in which the detainee is force-fed is not inhuman or degrading". * 68% of indictees have been

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...

, to the extent that a sizeable portion of the Bosnian Serb and Croatian Serb political and military leaderships have been indicted. Some authors see this as a reflection of bias (often by the whole tribunal, although the decisions were only made by the prosecution. The chambers could not initiate prosecutions on their own). More precise statistical analysis show, there indeed were some statistical imbalances among prosecutions (and, as a result, convictions): the percentage of accused persons from the Serb part of Bosnia and from Serbia was higher than these entities share in the overall population of the countries under ICTY jurisdiction, no Bosnian Croat was ever convicted by the ICTY (Slobodan Praljak poisoned himself during the pronouncement of his appeal judgment), which also convicted only very few Kosovo Albanians, Macedonians and Montenegrins and no Slovenians. Some authors have seen these imbalances as indicative of the actual proportion of crimes committed, however, the very distribution of crimes among the ethnic communities depends largely on the concept of identity one applies to it: "Serbs" committed most of the crimes during the conflict if one puts all Serbs, holding different citizenships and living in the different parts of the former Yugoslavia (Republic of Serbia, Republika Srpska, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro) into one "Serb" basket. They cease to be the main collective culprits if one regards them as members of different communities (Bosnian Serbs, Serbs from Croatia, Serbs from Serbia and Montenegro etc). The same is true for Croats, depending if they are regarded as one nation across national boundaries or members of different communities (Croats from Croatia, Croats from Bosnia or Croats from Montenegro. Efficiency: ICTY publications usually measure efficiency in terms of the part of indicted persons who were put on trial. From that perspective, the ICTY was very efficient, because it managed to get hold on all the persons for which it had issued arrest warrants. However, trials used to be very long and cumbersome, with some trials re-tried from scratch pursuant to appeals chamber decisions. Critics have argued some of the trials were longer than the benchmarks set by the relevant European Court of Human Rights' verdicts (which are legally not binding for the ICTY). This was partly due to the need to provide the accused (and the witnesses) with translations in languages they understood (some accused, like Voislav Sesel, tried to sabotage their trials by claiming not to understand the translation, for example when the translator spoke Croatian rather than Serbian), but – as Boas has pointed out - it was also a consequence of the chambers inconsistent approach to self-representation, the use of amici curiae and imposed defense counselling for accused persons who refused to accept duty counselling without having their own defense lawyers. In some cases – the Milosevic trial is one example – the health conditions of an accused forced the judges to lower the workload for the accused and prolonged the trial beyond the anticipated amount of time. * Critics have questioned whether the tribunal exacerbates tensions rather than promotes reconciliation, as is claimed by tribunal supporters. Polls show a generally negative reaction to the tribunal among both Serbs and Croats. A majority of Serbs and Croats have expressed doubts regarding the ICTY's integrity and question the tenability of its legal procedures. * In the Muslim part of Bosnia and Kosovo support for the ICTY and its mission was usually much higher than in Croatia and Serbia. In the latter, respondents tended to associate the ICTY with NATO (and used to take sides with the suspects from their own ethnic community) while in the Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina and in Kosovo, they saw the ICTY as an instrument of Europeanisation. As Bachmann has shown, support for the ICTY in polls was usually strongly negatively correlated with the number of community members sentenced by the ICTY. * Part and parcel of the problems to establish, if the ICTY has contributed to reconciliation are the underlying concepts of reconciliation: some authors equate reconciliation with doing impartial justice, assuming tribunal decision will be endorsed by victims, perpetrators and the broader public if they are issued in accordance with generally accepted rules, while others rely on empirically tested concepts of public legitimacy and then usually find that ICTY decisions only were accepted by the members of a community if they fulfilled their expectations (that is: exonerated community members and sentenced leaders of the enemy group). Research has shown that prosecutors usually did not pay much attention to reconciliation and usually understood it as giving victims a voice (Carla Del Ponte) and punishing perpetrators, while judges did not see reconciliation as an important goal of their work and usually saw the punishment of perpetrators (and satisfying victims) as more important than the perpetrators re-integration into society. The latter concept only played a role in decision of two judges from Southern Africa (Bachmann, Botero, Lambertz). A research project conducted at SWPS University in Poland between 2012 and 2018 discovered some originally unintended (by the UN and the tribunal organs) impact of ICTY decisions on the ground: in some cases (Croatia and the Serb community of Bosnia) trial verdicts (concerning the Gotovina and the Visegrad cases) triggered more emphasis on victims from beyond the own ethnic community in these communities' media frames. The project also showed how the ICTY had inclined judicial and administrative reform in some countries under its jurisdiction, either in order to curb the ICTY's principle of primacy (the ICTY could take over any suspect it wanted from a country under its jurisdiction, but governments usually tried to convince the ICTY they could try their suspects themselves) or to adopt to the ICTY completion strategy, under which domestic judiciaries could take over cases from the ICTY but needed to prove they could cope with them. While some of these policy changes (triggered by the ICTY, ICTR and the ICC) remained ambiguous in other parts of the world, they usually led to lasting change in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, because they were bolstered by pressure and support from the European Union and the US (Kemp, Ristić). Other points of criticism: * The interactive thematic debate on the role of international criminal justice in reconciliation was convened on 10 April 2013 by the President of the General Assembly, Vuk Jeremić, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia during the resumed part of the GA's 67th Session. The debate was scheduled after the convictions of Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač for inciting war crimes against Serbs in Croatia were overturned by an ICTY Appeals Panel in November 2012. The ICTY president Theodor Meron announced that all three Hague war crimes courts turned down the invitation of UNGA president to participate in the debate about their work. The President of the General Assembly, Jeremić, described Meron's refusal to participate in this debate as scandalous. He emphasized that he does not shy away from criticizing the ICTY, which has "convicted nobody for inciting crimes committed against Serbs in Croatia.". Jeremić, who served as president of the General Assembly in his capacity as Serbian foreign minister, was effectively speaking on behalf of the Serbian government when making such statements and his views do not necessarily reflect those of the UN General Assembly. Tomislav Nikolić, the president of

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

criticized the ICTY, claiming it did not contribute but hindered reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia. He added that although there is no significant ethnic disproportion among the number of casualties in the

Yugoslav wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

, the ICTY sentenced Serbs and ethnic Serbs to a combined total of 1150 years in prison while claiming that members of other ethnic groups have been sentenced to a total of 55 years for crimes against Serbs. Vitaly Churkin, the ambassador of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

to the UN, criticized the work of the ICTY, especially the overturned convictions of Gotovina and Ramush Haradinaj. * There have been allegations of censorship: in July 2011, the Appeals Chamber of ICTY confirmed the judgment of the Trial Chamber which found journalist and former tribunal's OTP spokesperson Florence Hartmann guilty of contempt of court and fined her €7,000. She disclosed documents of FR Yugoslavia's Supreme Defense Council meetings and criticized the tribunal for granting confidentiality of some information in them to protect Serbia's 'vital national interests' during Bosnia's lawsuit against the country for genocide in front of the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...

. Hartmann argued that Serbia was freed of the charge of genocide because ICTY redacted certain information in the council meetings. Since these documents have in the meantime been made public by the ICTY itself, a group of organizations and individuals, who supported her, said that the tribunal in this appellate proceedings "imposed a form of censorship aimed to protect the international judges from any form of criticism". (France refused to extradite Hartmann to serve the prison sentence issued against her by the ICTY after she refused to pay the €7,000 fine.). * Klaus-Peter Willsch compared the Ante Gotovina verdict, in which the late Croatian president

Franjo Tuđman Franjo Tuđman (14 May 1922 – 10 December 1999) was a Croatian politician and historian who became the first president of Croatia, from 1990 until his death in 1999. He served following the Independence of Croatia, country's independe ...

was posthumously found to have been participating in a Joint Criminal Enterprise, with the 897 Cadaver Synod trial in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, when Pope Stephen VI had the corpse of Pope Formosus exhumed, put on trial and posthumously convicted. * Some sentences have been considered too mild, even within the tribunal, complained at small sentences of convicted war criminals in comparison with their crimes. In 2010, Veselin Šljivančanin's sentence for his involvement in the Vukovar massacre was cut from 17 to 10 years, which caused outrage in Croatia. Upon hearing that news, Vesna Bosanac, who had been in charge of the Vukovar hospital during the fall of the city, said that the "ICTY is dead" for her: "For crimes that he �ljivančanin had committed in Vukovar, notably at Ovčara, he should have been jailed for life. I'm outraged.... The Hague(-based) tribunal has showed again that it is not a just tribunal." Danijel Rehak, the head of Croatian Association of Prisoners in Serbian Concentration Camps, said, "The shock of families whose beloved ones were killed at Ovčara is unimaginable. The court made a crucial mistake by accepting a statement of a JNA officer to whom Šljivančanin was a commander. I cannot understand that". Pavle Strugar's 8-year sentence for shelling of

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, a Port, seaport and the centre of the Dubrovni ...

, a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site, also caused outrage in Croatia. Judge Kevin Parker (of

) was named in a Croatian journal ( Nacional) as a main cause of the system's failure for having dismissed the testimonies of numerous witnesses. * The interactive thematic debate on the role of international criminal justice in reconciliation was convened on 10 April 2013 by the President of the General Assembly, Vuk Jeremić, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia during the resumed part of the GA's 67th Session. The debate was scheduled after the convictions of Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač for inciting war crimes against Serbs in Croatia were overturned by an ICTY Appeals Panel in November 2012. The ICTY president Theodor Meron announced that all three Hague war crimes courts turned down the invitation of UNGA president to participate in the debate about their work. The President of the General Assembly, Jeremić, described Meron's refusal to participate in this debate as scandalous. He emphasized that he does not shy away from criticizing the ICTY, which has "convicted nobody for inciting crimes committed against Serbs in Croatia.". Jeremić, who served as president of the General Assembly in his capacity as Serbian foreign minister, was effectively speaking on behalf of the Serbian government when making such statements and his views do not necessarily reflect those of the UN General Assembly. Tomislav Nikolić, the president of

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

to the UN, criticized the work of the ICTY, especially the overturned convictions of Gotovina and Ramush Haradinaj. * Regarding the final case on 29 November 2017 proceeding encompassing six Bosnian-Croat individuals, one of whom, Slobodan Praljak, in protest in court drank poison and subsequently died, the Prime Minister of Croatia

Andrej Plenković Andrej Plenković ( ; born 8 April 1970) is a Croatian politician serving as the Prime Minister of Croatia, prime minister of Croatia since October 2016. He was previously one of eleven List of members of the European Parliament for Croatia, 201 ...

claimed the verdict was "unjust" and Praljak's suicide "speaks of deep moral injustice to the six Croats, from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croat people". He criticized the verdict because it did not recognize the assistance and support provided by Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the collaboration of both armies at a time when the neighbouring state was faced with the " Greater-Serbian aggression" and when its territorial integrity was compromised, as well it alludes to the link between the then leadership of the Republic of Croatia, while in the previous verdict to Bosnian-Serb Ratko Mladić does not recognize the connection with Serbia's state officials at that time. * Dutch filmmaker Jos de Putter made a trilogy, The Milosevic Case – Glosses at Trial, for Tegenlicht investigative slot at the VPRO. The main hypothesis of the film is that ICTY prosecution has been struggling and failing to prove any link between Milosevic and the media version of the truth of the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia. The legitimacy of the prosecution methodology in securing the witness accounts and evidence, in general, has been examined by the filmmaker. * The political embedding of the ICTY in international politics and the compromises with the interest of justice this embeddedness requires from prosecutors and judges is the topic of the German movie "Storm" which uses anecdotes from the Gotovina case (but presents them as if the case's main culprit were a Serbian general and constantly mixes Republika Srpska with the Republic of Serbia).

Notes

References

External links

*
International Center for Transitional Justice, Criminal Justice page
* International Progress Organization
Monitoring of the ICTY
* Del Ponte, Carla (2003).
The role of international criminal prosecutions in reconstructing divided communities
', public lecture by Carla Del Ponte, Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, given at the London School of Economics, 20 October 2003.
Topical digests of the case law of ICTR and ICTY, Human Rights Watch, 2004

Hague Justice Portal
Academic gateway to The Hague organisations concerning international peace, justice and security.
Hague Justice Portal

Why Journalists Should be Worried by the Rwanda Tribunal Precedents (deals also with ICTY) by Thierry Cruvellier for Reporters Without Borders

SENSE News Agency
a special project based in ICTY
Complete web-based video archive of the Milosevic trial

War Crimes, conditionality and EU integration in the Western Balkans
by Vojin Dimitrijevic, Florence Hartmann, Dejan Jovic, Tija Memisevic, edited by Judy Batt, Jelena Obradović, Chaillot Paper No. 116, June 2009,

European Union Institute for Security Studies The European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) is the EU’s think tank for foreign and security policy. Its core mission is to provide analysis on security and defence issues, and organise discussion forums to help formulate EU p ...

Introductory note
by Fausto Pocar on the ''Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia'' in th
Historic Archives of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law

of the ''Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia'' in th

* ttp://legal.un.org/avl/ls/Pocar_CLP.html Lectureby Fausto Pocar entitled ''Completing the Mandate: The Legal Challenges Facing the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia'' in th
Lecture Series of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law

by Fausto Pocar entitled ''Contribution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to the Development of International Humanitarian Law'' in th
Lecture Series of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law

by Patrick Lipton Robinson, ''Fairness and Efficiency in the Proceedings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia'' in th
Lecture Series of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law
{{Authority control Croatian War of Independence Kosovo War Yugoslav Wars War crimes organizations Organisations based in The Hague Courts and tribunals established in 1993 Courts and tribunals disestablished in 2017 Netherlands and the United Nations United Nations courts and tribunals Incitement to genocide case law

History

Creation

Implementation

Operation

Indictees and accomplishments

Closure

Organization

Prosecutors

Chambers

Judges

Registry

Detention facilities

Controversies

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links