War crimes prosecutor joins UN Syria panel

The former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court has joined a United Nations investigative panel into war crimes in Syria, announced the UN Human Rights Council.

Carla del Ponte’s appointment to the commission came as the UN HRC also moved to extend the mission of the UN probe by a further 6 months.

The appointment has been hailed as a strong show of the UN’s determination to bring perpetrators of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria to justice.

Laura Dupuy Lasserre, president of the UN Human Rights Council welcomed del Ponte’s appointment, along with that of Vitit Muntarbhorn, commenting,
“Both have a long track record which has been recognized at the highest possible level internationally… Their reputation is of impartial, independent and objective human rights work.”
The Council voted 41 – 3 in favour of extending the panel’s mission until the March session of the Human Rights Council, with Russia, China and Cuba voting against the resolution and a further three countries abstaining.

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button