Tribunal: How It Works
Published: February 12, 2002
ORIGIN -- The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was established by the United Nations Security Council in 1993 and opened in The Hague in 1994. It is the first international criminal court since the military tribunals that judged Nazi and Japanese leaders after World War II.
OBJECTIVES -- The tribunal's mandate allows it to prosecute individuals for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed on the territory of any of the countries that were part of Yugoslavia before it began to disintegrate in 1991. The mandate encompasses four broad categories: grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions; violations of the laws or customs of war; genocide and crimes against humanity.
JURISDICTION -- The tribunal and national courts have concurrent jurisdiction. The tribunal can claim primacy over national courts and may take over national investigations and proceedings at any stage if this is deemed to be in the interest of international justice. Most defendants have been ethnic Serbs, but Muslims and Croats also have been indicted.
JUDGES -- The court has 16 permanent judges, elected to four-year terms by the United Nations General Assembly. The judges represent the main legal systems in the world. They serve in panels of three judges each; there are seven appeals judges, who serve in a panel of five .
PROSECUTION -- The Office of the Prosecutor operates independently of the Security Council, of any state or international organization and of the other organs of the tribunal. Its members are experienced police officers, crime experts, analysts and lawyers. It conducts investigations by collecting evidence, identifying witnesses, exhuming mass graves, prepares indictments and presents prosecutions before the judges of the Tribunal.
CUSTODY AND SENTENCES -- Presently 45 accused are held at the tribunal's detention unit for The Hague, in the high security compound of the Dutch prison at Scheveningen. Six have been released, pending trial. Another 30 have been indicted but remain fugitives. The maximum sentence that can be imposed on an accused is life imprisonment. The longest sentence handed down so far was 46 years for genocide.