Fifty-seventh General Assembly

Plenary

80^th Meeting (Resumed) (AM & PM)

GENERAL ASSEMBLY ELECTS 11 PERMANENT JUDGES TO RWANDA TRIBUNAL

The General Assembly tonight, following a day-long meeting that ended at 9:41 p.m., elected 11 permanent judges to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, after it deemed “invalid” Wednesday’s elections, owing to the participation of a Member in arrears of its payment obligations to the Organization.

The 11 new judges, elected in five separate ballots from a list of 22, will serve for four-year terms beginning on 25 May.  Elected on the first ballot were: Serguei Aleckseievich Egorov (Russian Federation); Mehmet Güney (Turkey); Erik Møse (Norway); William Hussein Sekule (United Republic of Tanzania); Andrésia Vaz (Senegal); Inés Mónica Weinberg de Roca (Argentina); and Lloyd George Williams (Saint Kitts and Nevis).

Elected in the second ballot were:  Jai Ram Reddy (Fiji); Arlette Ramaroson (Madagascar); and Mansoor Ahmad (Pakistan).  Asoka de Zoysa Gunawardana(Sri Lanka) was elected on the fifth ballot.

Following three rounds of balloting on Wednesday, General Assembly President Jan Kavan (Czech Republic) ruled that the results were invalid because one Member State, not eligible to vote according to Article 19 of the Charter, which involves arrears in payments to the Organization, had, in fact, participated in the vote.  He announced that elections would proceed anew on Friday.

This morning, the Assembly President clarified his decision to nullify Wednesday’s voting, in which six of the 11 judges had been selected, saying that those elections had been based on incorrect information provided by the Secretariat.  He had asked for a report to be prepared and made available to Members.  For the first time in United Nations history, its Charter had been violated in that way, he added.

He suspended today’s meeting at noon, following a debate this morning among delegations about whether to appeal Wednesday’s ruling, on the grounds that such a decision did not rest solely with the President.  Before suspending, the President reiterated that there must be no doubt about the judges’ legitimacy.  He called on Members to consider all aspects of the difficult situation, adding that the dignity of the General Assembly and the United Nations was at stake.

When the Assembly resumed this afternoon, Hans Corell, Under-Secretary-General and Legal Counsel, expressed the Secretariat’s deepest apologies and most

General Assembly Plenary           - 2 -            Press Release GA/1029

80^th Meeting (Resumed) (AM & PM)                     31 January 2003

sincere regrets for the most unfortunate error made by a member of the Secretariat, which had caused a great deal of stress for delegations.  He promised a thorough investigation of the situation surrounding the error.  As a result of that inquiry, the Secretariat would be in a position to ensure that such mistakes would not occur in the future.

Summary of Legal Opinion

Mr. CORREL said the General Committee asked him to review a suggestion to cure the invalidity that affected the three rounds of balloting for the permanent judges.  That suggestion was motivated by “the undeniable fact” that the error was the fault of the Secretariat.  Accordingly, it was suggested that there was a need for flexibility to respect the sovereignty of Member States, which had voted in good faith. 

In the very limited time available, he said he had made a quick examination of the way in which Article 19 of the Charter and rule 160 of the General Assembly’s Rules of Procedure had been applied.  The Assembly had, on occasions, waived the strict requirements of rule 160 and permitted a State to vote in advance of, or without, any consideration of its case by the Committee on Contributions.  In all such cases, the waiver had been granted before any voting took place.  In no case that he had been able to identify had the Assembly retroactively made a decision to grant a waiver under Article 19. 

In view of the above, he said he could not advocate the course of action that had been suggested.  At the same time, the Assembly had the power to take a final decision in the matter.

Prior to the voting this evening, as in the voting on Wednesday, the Permanent Observer for the Holy See, although invited to take part in the voting, said he would not participate.

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