Kosovo seeks equal treatment for access to The Hague Tribunal archives at the UN

The United Nations Security Council is today approving a resolution on the future of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, a body established in 2010 to carry out the remaining functions of the tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

This decision comes five days before the end of the mandate of the Residual Mechanism for International Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, created to handle unresolved matters from both tribunals. One of the key issues remains determining which state will host the archives of The Hague Tribunal.

The Security Council is also expected to decide which state will be entrusted with preserving the archives of these tribunals, which contain a vast amount of documents and evidence on the crimes and genocide committed in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

The office of the president of this mechanism, Graciela Gatti Santana, told Radio Kosovo that the institution is prepared to continue fulfilling its remaining obligations and move resolutely toward closure.

“A limited number of key judicial functions must remain at the international level to ensure the responsible completion of the justice cycle,” Gatti Santana said.

“These include judicial functions related to the transfer and release of prisoners, witness protection and their monitoring.”

Kushtrim Gara, head of the Missing Persons Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister, said Kosovo must be given access to these archives, especially when they are needed to help find missing persons.

“In the process of shedding light on the fate of missing persons, access to archives, including those of The Hague Tribunal, remains necessary, and we are seeking equal access,” Gara told Radio Kosovo.

Unlike the special prosecutors’ offices of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Kosovo’s Special Prosecutor’s Office has never had access to this mechanism’s archival database.

The UN asked the six former Yugoslav republics — Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia and North Macedonia — whether they are willing to host the archive, but not Kosovo, which is not a UN member, even though it is one of the countries most affected by the war in the former Yugoslavia.

In February, acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, requesting that any decision on the fate of the archives “guarantee equal and dignified access for the victims and institutions of Kosovo.”

The archives of the tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda will be entrusted for hosting, but they will remain the property of the UN and that ownership cannot be transferred.

However, the Residual Mechanism assesses that its archives will serve as a powerful platform for confronting the past, as well as a tool to support memory of the past and reconciliation.