NOW Lebanon - Norman Farrell steps up as new STL prosecutor, March 1, 2012

A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Wednesday that 53-year-old Canadian jurist Norman Farrell will be replacing his compatriot, Daniel Bellemare, as prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). Bellemare, who has held the position since March 1, 2009, is stepping down for health reasons.

To the Office of the Prosecutor, Farrell brings over a decade of senior UN tribunal experience, including four years as deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and six years as the senior appeals counsel for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Prior to those appointments, he worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a number of humanitarian and criminal law roles in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ethiopia and Switzerland. From 1988 to 1996, he was crown counsel of the Criminal Division with the Attorney General for the Province of Ontario in Canada.

Farrell has also been a visiting scholar at the International Studies Center, Queens University Law School, and has lectured extensively on humanitarian law in countries such as Indonesia, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Italy and Canada.

At the ICTY, Farrell investigated and prosecuted some of the most infamous war crimes committed during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, including the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.  Specifically, his office dealt with four categories of crimes: grave breaches of the Geneva Convention, violations of the laws of war, genocide and crimes against humanity.

As the first war crimes court to be created by the UN, the ICTY established a number of precedents that have made historic contributions to international law, such as the ruling that rape is a form of torture and crime against humanity. Perhaps most significantly, the ICTY brought an end to legal impunity for senior statesmen in cases of severe breaches of international law: the 161 individuals indicted by the ICTY thus far include a president and several prime ministers and senior political, military and paramilitary leaders. Such a contribution may be highly pertinent to the case of the STL, in which the “fight against impunity,” noted Bellemare in his resignation letter, is the central, “long and difficult journey.”

Similarly, at the ICTR, Farrell was involved in the prosecution of those responsible for genocide and other grave breaches of humanitarian law occurring in Rwanda during 1994.

The secretary general’s spokesperson also announced the appointment of ICC Appeals Judge Daniel David Ntanda Nsereko as a replacement of the late Judge Antonio Cassese in the Appeals Chamber.

STL spokesperson Marten Youssef told NOW Lebanon that the STL “welcomes the news” of the two appointments, adding: “Both of them bring vast international experience and will surely contribute to the work of the Tribunal.”

Norman Farrell: CV summary

2008 – 2012: Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
2005 – 2008: Principal Legal Officer in ICTY’s Office of the Prosecutor
1999 – 2005: Senior Appeals Counsel and Head of Appeals Section in Office of the Prosecutor for both the ICTY and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
1996 – 1999: International Committee of the Red Cross: Delegate and Coordinator in charge of dissemination of International Humanitarian Law in Bosnia & Herzegovina; Legal Advisor on International Humanitarian Law in Ethiopia; Advisor on International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law in Switzerland
1988 – 1996: Crown Counsel (Criminal Division) with Attorney General for Province of Ontario, Canada