United Nations Security Council resolution 1503, adopted unanimously on 28 August 2003, after recalling resolutions
827
__FORCETOC__
Year 827 ( DCCCXXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Byzantine Empire
* June 14 – Euphemius, exiled Byzantine admiral, asks for t ...
(1993),
955 (1994),
978 (1995),
1165
Year 1165 ( MCLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* Spring – Emperor Manuel I (Komnenos) makes an alliance with Venice against ...
(1998),
1166 (1998),
1329 (2000),
1411 (2002),
1431 (2002) and
1481 (2003), the Council decided to split the
prosecutor
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal tria ...
ial duties of the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...
(ICTY) and the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) which had previously been under the responsibility of one official,
Carla Del Ponte, since 1999.
Resolution
Observations
The Security Council commended the progress both tribunals had made in contributing to peace and security in the
former Yugoslavia and
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
. Welcoming steps taken the concerned states in the
Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
and
African Great Lakes region, it noted the objective of both tribunals to apprehend all remaining persons
at large and called for the co-operation of countries in this regard. The Council urged states to impose measures against individuals assisting fugitives through
travel bans and the freezing of assets.
The preamble of the resolution also envisaged the completion of ICTY and ICTR investigations by 2004, trials by the end of 2008 and all work in 2010 by concentrating on the prosecution of senior leaders. Lower-level officials would be tried at a national level. The strengthening of national judicial systems was crucial to the ICTY and ICTR completion strategies, including the establishment of a
war crimes chamber at the ICTY. It was convinced that both tribunals could complete their work more efficiently if each had its own Prosecutor.
Acts
Acting under
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 an ...
, the Council called on the
international community
The international community is an imprecise phrase used in geopolitics and international relations to refer to a broad group of people and governments of the world.
As a rhetorical term
Aside from its use as a general descriptor, the term is t ...
to assist national jurisdictions in improving their capacity to prosecute cases transferred from the ICTY and ICTR, encouraging the development of outreach programmes. It called on all states, particularly
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and ...
,
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capi ...
,
Serbia and Montenegro
Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of ...
and the
Republic Srpska
Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, lit=Serb Republic, also known as Republic of Srpska, ) is one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located ...
within Bosnia and Herzegovina to co-operate with the ICTY with regard to
Radovan Karadžić,
Ratko Mladić and
Ante Gotovina.
Meanwhile, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
,
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
,
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
and the
Republic of the Congo
The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...
, among other states, were requested to co-operate with the ICTR with regard to
Félicien Kabuga
Félicien Kabuga (born 1 March 1933) is a Rwandan businessman and génocidaire who played a major role in the run-up to the Genocide of the Rwandan Tutsis. A multimillionaire, and the
Rwandan Patriotic Army
french: Forces rwandaises de défense sw, Nguvu ya Ulinzi ya Watu wa Rwanda
, image = Rwanda Defense Force emblem.png
, alt =
, caption =
, image2 =
, alt2 =
, caption2 ...
.
All states were urged to co-operate with
Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cr ...
in apprehending fugitives while the donor community was asked to support
High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina
The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were created in 1995 immediately after the signing of the Dayton Agreement which ended the 1992–1995 Bos ...
in the creation of a special chamber at the ICTY to deal with serious violations of
international humanitarian law
International humanitarian law (IHL), also referred to as the laws of armed conflict, is the law that regulates the conduct of war ('' jus in bello''). It is a branch of international law that seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict by pr ...
. The Presidents and Prosecutors of both tribunals were asked to report on the implementation of the completion strategies.
Finally, the Secretary-General
Kofi Annan was instructed to nominate a Prosecutor for the ICTR, while his decision to nominate Carla Del Ponte as Prosecutor at the ICTY was welcomed.
See also
*
Bosnian genocide
*
(2003–2005)
*
Rwandan genocide
The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...
*
Yugoslav Wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...
References
External links
*
Text of the Resolution at undocs.org
{{UNSCR 2003
1503
2003 in Serbia and Montenegro
2003 in Rwanda
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1503