Lord Bonomy appointed to UN roster

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has appointed Scottish judge Lord Iain Bonomy to the roster of Judges of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism), with effect from 6 February 2020.

From 2004 to 2009, Judge Bonomy served as a Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), where he sat on many high-profile cases and presided over the trial of former Serbian President Milan Milutinović.

Following his departure from the ICTY, Judge Bonomy was appointed as a Judge of the Court of Appeal in Scotland, and subsequently served as a Surveillance Commissioner for the United Kingdom and later a Judicial Commissioner in the Office of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner.

The Mechanism performs functions previously carried out by ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

The United Nations Security Council created the Mechanism on 22 December 2010. It started operating on 1 July 2012 in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania, and on 1 July 2013 in The Hague, the Netherlands. 

Judge Bonomy was appointed to the Mechanism’s roster of Judges following the resignation of Judge Ben Emmerson on 19 July 2019, and will serve the remainder of Judge Emmerson’s term of office.

The Mechanism has a roster of 25 independent Judges who serve both its branches.