Secretary-General Appoints Judge Graciela Susana Gatti Santana President of International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Judge Graciela Susana Gatti Santana of Uruguay as President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (the Mechanism) for a term commencing on 1 July 2022.  The decision was made after consulting the President of the Security Council and the judges of the Mechanism.

The Secretary-General is grateful to Judge Carmel Agius for his service as the President of the Mechanism from 19 January 2019 until 30 June 2022.

Judge Gatti Santana has been a judge for almost 30 years.  Since 2012, she has served as a judge at the Mechanism, where she is also a member of the Rules Committee.  In addition to her extensive judicial experience at the national and international level, both as a trial and appeals judge, she has been teaching as a professor at several academic institutions in Uruguay.  Since March 2021, Judge Gatti has been the President of the Association of Magistrates of Uruguay.

Judge Gatti is fluent in Spanish, English and French.

The Mechanism was established by Security Council resolution 1966 (2010) of 22 December 2010 to carry out the residual functions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).  It has two branches, in Arusha and in The Hague.  The President shall be present at either seat of the branches of the Mechanism as necessary to exercise her functions.