The United Nations Security Council (UNSC)’s Informal Working Group on International Tribunals convened its first meeting in 2020 on June 3 under the chair of Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, head of the Vietnamese Mission to the UN and chairman of the group.

In his remarks at the online meeting, Quy affirmed Vietnam’s commitments to promoting multilateralism, the UN Charter and international law.

As Chair of the group, Vietnam will push ahead with dialogues in the spirit of construction and cooperation between the group, the Chair, the Prosecutor of the mechanism and the UN Secretariat, in order to soon complete tasks assigned by the UNSC, he said.

Delegates reviewed the mechanism’s performance over the past six months, and measures to improve its operational efficiency, overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and support judicial agencies in countries.

The Informal Working Group on International Tribunals was established in June 2000 to deal with a specific issue pertaining to the statute of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 (ICTY) and subsequently mandated to deal with other legal issues pertaining to ICTY as well as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Genocide and Other Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of Rwanda and Rwandan Citizens Responsible for Genocide and Other Such Violations Committed in the Territory of Neighbouring States between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994 (ICTR).

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