New York (VNA) – Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, head ofthe Vietnamese Mission to the United Nations, chaired a six-month periodical meeting ofthe UN Security Council (UNSC)’s Informal Working Group on International Tribunalsin New York on June 2.

The event, the first in-person meeting of the group at the UN headquarters since COVID-19broke out in early 2020 in New York, drew Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Stephen Mathias, Presidentof the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) Judge Carmel Agius, and IRMCT Chief Prosecutor SergeBrammertz.

Opening the meeting, Ambassador Quy thanked members of thegroup for their cooperative and constructive attitude in supporting the IRMCT to fulfil all missionsfollowing UN resolutions and the mechanism’s operation regulations.

He affirmed the commitments of Vietnam, as the chair of thegroup, to supporting the increase of dialogues between the group and the Chairand the prosecutor of the mechanism tocomplete the mechanism’s tasks assigned by the UNSC, thus promoting the observance of the UN Charter and international law.

AssistantSecretary-General for Legal Affairs Stephen Mathias hailed the efforts of the judge, prosecutor and staff of the IRMCT inovercoming difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain and speed upthe judging activities.

He also lauded the cooperative attitude and efforts of the group’s members,especially Vietnam’s performance as the Chair of the group in maintaining thegroup’s operations and dialogues with the mechanism amidst the complicated situation.

The Informal Working Group on International Tribunals wasestablished in June 2000 to deal with a specific issue pertaining to thestatute of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of PersonsResponsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law in theTerritory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 (ICTY).

It was subsequently mandated to deal with other legal issuespertaining to ICTY as well as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda forthe Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Genocide and Other SeriousViolations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory ofRwanda and Rwandan Citizens Responsible for Genocide and Other Such ViolationsCommitted in the Territory of Neighbouring States between 1 January 1994 and 31December 1994 (ICTR).

Apart from the working group, Vietnam is holding theChairmanship of the UNSC’s South Sudan Sanctions Committee and the LebanonSanctions Committee.

In the group’s meeting in June last year, as the chair of thegroup, Vietnam proposed the UNSC to adopt Resolution 2529 (2020) on reappointing the prosecutor and reviewingthe two-year operation of the International Residual Mechanism for CriminalTribunals (IRMCT).

The next meeting ofthe group is scheduled in June 2022./.