Residual Mechanism president says reforms cutting staff by nearly 90 per cent need a Security Council resolution

The President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals told the General Assembly that proposed reforms could reduce the Mechanism's staffing by nearly 90 per cent, and that they cannot be carried out without Security Council action. Graciela Gatti Santana spoke while presenting the Mechanism's fourteenth annual report, document A/81/287, to the 193-member Assembly.

She said a strategic plan, submitted to the Council in May and based on the Secretary-General's recommendations, proposes consolidating operations in a single location and streamlining functions to achieve substantial cost savings. She said the Mechanism cannot implement the changes without Council authorization. “The Mechanism requires a Security Council resolution to enact this radical, yet just transformation,” she said. She added that continued downsizing and uncertainty have taken a “significant toll” on staff and judges.

According to the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services, the Mechanism's ability to become a smaller, temporary structure remains constrained by its mandated architecture, despite years of resource reductions. Ms. Gatti Santana said the Mechanism still oversees sentences, protects victims and witnesses, manages archives and assists national jurisdictions. She warned against moving authority over pardons and early release to individual states, citing the risk of inconsistent standards.

The European Union's representative, an observer at the Assembly, urged the Council to adopt a resolution “as soon as possible” so the Mechanism can finish its work and move towards closure. Bosnia and Herzegovina's representative regretted the Council's failure to give the Mechanism the resources and arrangements it needs. He said continued inaction would undermine the Council's credibility. “Refusing to do so does not erase its legacy or its indelible mark on international criminal justice, nor will it force it into obscurity,” he said.

Latvia's representative, speaking for the Baltic States, said the Mechanism continues to operate because the Council has not ended its mandate. She rejected the Russian Federation's interpretation of resolution 1966 (2010). She cited the Organization's responsibility towards approximately 3,200 protected witnesses and those serving sentences. Rwanda's delegate said more than 1,000 suspects in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi remain at large. He asked that the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda be transferred to Rwanda while remaining United Nations property. “The closure of an institution must never become an opportunity for fugitives to escape accountability,” he said.

Some speakers criticized the Mechanism. The Russian Federation's representative accused it of inheriting the Former Yugoslavia Tribunal's “manifest” anti-Serb bias. She said Ratko Mladić, who died in detention in The Hague, should have been granted early release on humanitarian grounds, and she called for an investigation into his death and his medical care. Serbia's speaker said the Mechanism and the earlier tribunals had raised “serious concerns” and urged that their work be finished within a practicable timeframe.

The United Republic of Tanzania's representative raised the future of the Mechanism's premises in Lakilaki, Arusha. He urged the Assembly and the Council to ask the Secretary-General to consider moving some United Nations entities and functions there. “This would repurpose existing United Nations infrastructure and avoid the costs of new premises,” he said.

The source does not say when the Council might take up the plan. It does not record what position the United States or any other permanent member, apart from the Russian Federation's criticisms of the Mechanism, has taken on a resolution. It gives no cost figures for the planned savings.