Arusha, February 9th, 2005 (FH) - The Registrars of four international tribunals meeting in Arusha Wednesday announced that the key challenges for the coming years would be “the availability of funding and the delivery of coherent completion strategies for the ad hoc courts”.

Hans Holthuis of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Robin Vincent of the Special court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), Adama Dieng of the Rwanda Tribunal (ICTR) and Bruno Cathala of the International Criminal Court (ICC) signed a joint communiqué on the “identification of best practices in the administration of international criminal justice”.

The four have been debating issues of “detention, functioning of the defence, the protection of witnesses, the plight of victims, communication and sensitisation initiatives, the enforcement of sentences, and the position of acquitted persons” for the last two days.

Their objective is to “strengthen the international criminal justice system and define common strategies”.

The talks, which follow the first round in Freetown, Sierra Leone in March 2004, are aimed at “consolidating cooperation” among the tribunals. They hope to complete the talks by early March this year and make a report to the European Commission, which funds the inter-tribunal cooperation.

The four men charged with running the international tribunals concluded their communiqué by acknowledging “with deep appreciation the significant and continuing support of the international community” and called on member states to “implement those court orders in respect of the surrender and detention of indictees who are still at large”.

KN/PB/GF/FH (RE’’’0209e)