On December 6, 2010, the Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations organized, on the occasion of the 9th session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, a side-event at the Bohemian National Hall. The main speaker at this side-event was Mr. Robert Fremr, the member of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic and ad litem judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (hereinafter the “ICTR”) currently dealing with the case Prosecutor v. Ildephonse Nyzeyimana. Mr. Fremr is also the candidate of the Czech Republic for the judge of the International Criminal Court for the period 2012 - 2021. The topic of the side-event, which was attended by the representatives of approximately twenty delegations to the above-stated Assembly of States Parties and the officers of the International Criminal Court, was: “How to eliminate the setbacks in the proceedings before the international criminal tribunals”.

At the beginning of this side-event, Ambassador Martin Palouš, the Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the United Nations, made a few introductory remarks on the relevance of the international criminal justice and the Czech support thereof. Judge Fremr’s talk was based on his unique practical experience from the ICTR which made it for the mainly diplomatic audience very timely and interesting. Judge Fremr focused not only on the procedural delays in the trials before the international criminal tribunals, but also on the major setbacks often caused by political reasons. Subsequently, his talk generated a lively discussion with the participants of the side-event on how to make the international criminal justice more efficient.

The text of his speech can be found here