<<previous  | index  |  next>>

FOREWORD

This book contains separate digests of the jurisprudence of the ICTR (ICTR Digest) and the ICTY (ICTY Digest).  The book provides quick summaries or actual quotes from the Tribunals’ judgments, which are organized topically.  The digests focus on case law regarding genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, individual responsibility, command responsibility, and sentencing.  They do not address all issues arising in a case, such as evidentiary rulings or other motion practice, and only include judgments publicly available through October 1, 2003, for the ICTR Digest, and July 30, 2003, for the ICTY Digest.  The ICTR Digest additionally includes the judgment in Prosecutor v. Nahimana, Barayagwiza and Ngeze, Case No. ICTR-99-52-T, widely known as the “Media Case,” issued on December 3, 2003.  Many of the judgments quoted contain citations to other judgments or documents.  Human Rights Watch has not reproduced those here.  Please refer to the official judgments for these additional citations.  

This book does not contain analysis of or commentary on the decisions themselves.  The digests are quick reference tools to assist practitioners and researchers as they familiarize themselves with the case law interpreting the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR Statute)* and the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY Statute).**  They are not designed to substitute for reading the actual decisions.  The decisions of the ICTR can be found on the website of the ICTR at http://www.ictr.org/, and the decisions of the ICTY can be found on the website of the ICTY at http://www.un.org/icty/index.html. 

* See Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, S.C. Res. 955, U.N. Doc. S/Res/955 (1994), as amended, found at http://www.ictr.org/ENGLISH/basicdocs/statute.html.

** See Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, S.C. Res. 827, U.N. Doc. S/Res/827 (1993), as amended, found at http://www.un.org/icty/legaldoc/index.htm.