Carla Del Ponte, Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY, to visit Finland

Press release 380/2006
26 September, 2006

Carla Del Ponte, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), will visit Finland on 28–29 September, at the invitation of Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja. On Friday 29 September Del Ponte will meet with President Tarja Halonen, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja. Their talks will deal with issues pertaining to the ICTY.

An international court established in 1993 for hearing cases of war crimes committed in the area of the former Yugoslavia and situated in The Hague, the ICTY has authority to prosecute individuals who have committed acts of genocide, violations of humanitarian law or war crimes in the former Yugoslavia since 1991. The intention is that the ICTY should complete its work by the year 2010. Carla Del Ponte has served as Prosecutor of the ICTY since 1999. This will be her first visit to Finland in her capacity as Prosecutor.

On Friday Del Ponte will deliver a talk at a seminar on the challenges faced by the ICTY and its achievements, organised by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Amnesty International. Other speakers at the seminar, entitled “Building a Culture of Accountability – Action against Impunity in the External Relations of the European Union”, include Erkki Tuomioja, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Olli Rehn, Commissioner for Enlargement, and Erkki Kourula, Judge at the International Criminal Court.

Additional information: Ambassador Pekka Oinonen, tel. +358 9 1605 5732, and Project Adviser Susanna Mehtonen, tel. +358 9 1605 5706, Unit for Public International Law of the Legal Department, Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs