Legal professionals in Montenegro learn how to access ICTY material under OSCE/ODIHR-led project

PODGORICA, 22 February 2011 – Staff from the Special Prosecutor’s Office in Montenegro and the higher courts in Podgorica and Bijelo Polje attended a training session today on accessing and researching material of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The course, which was conducted by the ICTY, is part of the War Crimes Justice Project led by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and funded by the European Union. The Project aims to strengthen the capacity of legal professionals in the region to handle complex war crimes cases.

“The OSCE Mission supports this Project, which is a good example of how international and regional actors can co-operate to help legal practitioners deal with war crimes,” said Ambassador Šarūnas Adomavičius, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, which co-organized the event.

Romana Schweiger, ODIHR’s Regional Co-ordinator of the War Crimes Justice Project, said it was increasingly important that national legal institutions had skills to access to ICTY material as the Tribunal begins to phase out.

“The training course helps national institution staff learn how to access publicly available material they need for national proceedings and how to request the Tribunal to provide further material not published on the ICTY’s website ,” Schweiger said.

The War Crimes Justice Project is a four-million euro regional project funded by the European Union and carried out by ODIHR in partnership with the ICTY, the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute and OSCE field operations.

This project is funded by the European Union.

For more information please contact: Sanela Tunovic, War Crimes Justice Project Outreach Officer at: +387 61 539 535 or e-mail: at wcjp@odihr.pl.