India backs continuation of UN war crimes tribunal mechanism

India has backed the continuation of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), stressing that its residual functions remain vital for protecting victims and witnesses, preserving tribunal archives, and ensuring accountability for war crimes and genocide in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

United Nations: India backs keeping the mechanism established to continue the work of two international criminal tribunals, saying this would ensure continued accountability for the war crimes and genocide committed in the two regions.

“India underscores the importance of the mechanism continuing residual functions, including the protection of victims and witnesses, assistance to national jurisdictions, and the preservation and management of the tribunal’s archives”, Congress MP Manish Tiwari said on Wednesday (local time).

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“These functions remain essential to safeguarding the legacy of the ad hoc tribunals and ensuring continued accountability”, he said.

He was speaking at a plenary session of the General Assembly on the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), which was set up by the Security Council in 2010 to take on the unfinished work of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

The Rwanda tribunal tried those responsible for the genocide of the Tutsis during a civil war and ended its work in 1994, while the Yugoslav tribunal that rendered justice on war crimes closed in 1993.

The Yugoslav tribunal held 111 trials and convicted 90 persons, one of whom has an appeal pending with the IRMCT.

The Rwanda tribunal indicted 86 persons in connection with the genocide of about 800,000 Tutsi ethnic group and some moderate Hutus by the Hutu extremists who controlled the government of Rwanda.

The IRMCT convicted 61 people after it picked up some of the cases from the tribunal.

“We recognise the mechanism’s contribution to the fight against impunity and reiterate the importance of fulfilling its mandate in accordance with the principles of justice, impartiality, fairness and due process, upholding the interests of justice and protecting the rights of victims remains essential”, Tiwari said.

As the IRMCT “moves towards completing its mandate, we emphasise the need for an efficient, orderly and time-bound transition without compromising judicial independence or the effective discharge of its remaining responsibilities”, he said.