THE East African Law Society (EALS) together with the Open University of Tanzania have organized a two-day consultative workshop to discuss the future of the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) ahead of winding up of the tribunal set for 2010.

The meeting scheduled for August 16-17 in Arusha will bring together experts, legislators from EALS, archivists and curators who will be lobbying for and eliciting positive responses towards ensuring the retention of ICTR Archives for posterity here in East Africa.

Speaking to The New Times from Arusha, the EALS Public Information and Communications Officer, Bobi Odiko, said that the meeting will be a proactive approach by the EALS to conduct in-depth analysis, discussions and recommendations on what is required for the long-term accommodation of the archives in Africa. 

Recommendations to be submitted to the Goldstone Committee are expected to be drawn from here.

The Goldstone Committee chaired by Justice Richard Goldstone is mandated with the responsibility of identifying the most preferable location that will host the archival repository of the works of the ICTY (Yugoslavia) and ICTR. Goldstone was a judge on both tribunals.

Over 50 delegates from EAC member states and other experts from Senegal, South Africa and Sudan are expected to participate in this meeting.

The President of the EALS, Tom Ojienda will give a key note address on the background of the ICTR and its achievements in bringing the perpetrators of 1994 Genocide in Rwanda to justice.

Prof.T S Mbwette, Justice Goldstone and other ICTR top officials together with officials from the Sierra Leone Special Court will share ideas on how to reserve and put to use the archives of the ICTR for future references. 

According to the EALS and the Open University, the retention of archives in the continent as their permanent home will be a legacy in jurisprudence because the archive would be of tremendous value and an asset to Africa. 

"The ICTR is in the process of working through a completion strategy that will see the court wind up in 2010. It is thus imperative that Africans are engaged in discussions concerning a permanent home for the archives and other residual issues,” says EALS’ CEO, Mr Don Deya.

The Tribunal that was formed by the United Nations in 1994 has commenced preparations towards instituting a clear archival system that will best serve the interests of many stakeholders, especially the communities of Rwanda, the EAC and the African continent at large. 

The many benefits of and uses for the archives include facilitating ongoing and future prosecutions, serving as a historic record as well as contributing to peace and reconciliation in the regions.

The archives are composed of an extremely large amount of records. For example, the Offices of the Prosecutor possess several million pages of evidence and the Registries Court Management Support Sections hold several tens of thousands of hours of videotaped courtroom proceedings.

Late last year, ICTR, convened a Symposium in Arusha to discuss the issue of its legacy - post 2010.

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