PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
UN tribunal for Rwanda elects new judges
New York, US (PANA) - The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Tuesday elected a new President and Vice-President to run the affairs of the tribunal, a UN statement said.
The tribunal deals with the worst war crimes committed during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
The statement, which was made available to PANA in New York, said that those elected were Vagn Joensen from Denmark as the new President and Florence Rita Arrey from Cameroon as Vice-President.
It also disclosed that the newly elected officials would assume their duties on 2 March and 14 February, respectively.
The statement said that before joining the tribunal in May 2007, Joensen was a judge at the Danish High Court. He also served as an international judge for the UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) in 2001-02.
He had been the chairperson of the tribunal’s rules committee since its inception in 2007.
On her part, Arrey joined the tribunal in October 2003, and had served as a judge in the Supreme Court of Cameroon.
She was the Chief Justice of Cameroon's Court of Appeal for 10 years, making her the first Cameroonian woman to hold the post.
Arrey is also President of the Cameroonian Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ).
The ICTR based in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha was set up after the Rwandan genocide, when at least 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed during three months of bloodletting that followed the death of then president Juvenal Habyarimana when his plane was brought down over the capital, Kigali.
-0- PANA AA/MA 14Feb2012
The tribunal deals with the worst war crimes committed during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
The statement, which was made available to PANA in New York, said that those elected were Vagn Joensen from Denmark as the new President and Florence Rita Arrey from Cameroon as Vice-President.
It also disclosed that the newly elected officials would assume their duties on 2 March and 14 February, respectively.
The statement said that before joining the tribunal in May 2007, Joensen was a judge at the Danish High Court. He also served as an international judge for the UN Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) in 2001-02.
He had been the chairperson of the tribunal’s rules committee since its inception in 2007.
On her part, Arrey joined the tribunal in October 2003, and had served as a judge in the Supreme Court of Cameroon.
She was the Chief Justice of Cameroon's Court of Appeal for 10 years, making her the first Cameroonian woman to hold the post.
Arrey is also President of the Cameroonian Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ).
The ICTR based in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha was set up after the Rwandan genocide, when at least 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed during three months of bloodletting that followed the death of then president Juvenal Habyarimana when his plane was brought down over the capital, Kigali.
-0- PANA AA/MA 14Feb2012
