|
Press Release
. Communiqué de presse
The Hague,
16 December 2003 JUDGES CHRISTINE VAN DEN WYNGAERT AND KRISTER THELIN SWORN IN AS AD LITEM JUDGES OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA On Monday 15 December 2003, Judges Christine Van Den Wyngaert (Belgium) and Krister Thelin (Sweden) were sworn in as ad litem Judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) after their appointment by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, effective from that day. Judge Van Den Wyngaert and Judge Thelin have been assigned along with Judge Parker (Australia) to the Trial Chamber sitting on the trial of Pavle Strugar. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Judge Christine Van Den Wyngaert: Judge Christine Van Den Wyngaert was born in Antwerp in 1952. She received her law degree from Brussels University in 1974 and her Ph.D in Law in 1979 from the same university. Until taking up her appointment as an ad litem Judge of the ICTY, Judge Van Den Wyngaert taught criminal law and criminal procedure at the University of Antwerp. She has published widely in the fields of international and comparative criminal law. Her publications include: The political offence exception to extradition (Kluwer, 1981), Criminal Procedure Systems in the European Community (Butterworth, 1993) and various articles in law reviews. Judge Van Den Wyngaert was rapporteur for the International Law Association (Buenos Aires in 1996 and Taipe in 1998) relating to extradition and human rights and a general reporter for the Association Internationale de Droit Pénal in Budapest relating to international criminal cooperation for organised crime. In 2001, she became a doctor honoris causa of the University of Uppsala in Sweden. She was also an ad hoc Judge at the International Court of Justice in the Yerodia case between 2000 and 2002. Judge Krister Thelin: Judge Krister Thelin was born in Stockholm in 1947. Judge Thelin received his law degree from the University of Lund in 1972 and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 1976. Prior to taking up his appointment as an ad litem Judge at the ICTY, Judge Thelin held the position of Chief Justice of Appeal (on leave) at the Scania Court of Appeals in Malmö, Sweden. He was a Member of Law Commissions of the Swedish Ministry of Justice from 1991 to 1997, serving as Chairman from 1995 to 1997. He has also, from 1998 to 2001, been Director General of the Independent Media Commission (IMC), the supreme agency in charge of regulating broadcasting in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His responsibilities have included establishing and running this post-Dayton regulatory agency and chairing the IMC Enforcement Panel, which engages in dispute resolution in lieu of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Court of First Instance and from 2001 to 2002 chairing the Stability Pact (working table II) Balkans eAgenda. From 2002 until this autumn he was Director of the Policy and Legal Advice Centre in Belgrade, a project within the European Union Stability and Association Process for the Balkans. Judge Thelin is a High Court Judge with a background in international legal process, humanitarian law and constitutional law. He has had experience of the Balkans, primarily Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1997. He is a member of the Swedish Judges Association and the Swedish Society for Judicial Research, of which he was President between 1992 and 1998. He is also a member of the Swedish Helsinki Committee and a member of the International Commission of Jurists, Swedish Section. Judge Thelin is co-editor of the Swedish Code of Judicial Procedure, as well as numerous articles and reports on IT-law, humanitarian and constitutional law in Swedish legal periodicals and publications. **** |