President Gatti Santana meets with the President of Tanzania, Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan
Today Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism), paid a courtesy call on Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania (Tanzania), at the State House in Dar es Salaam. Her Excellency President Samia Suluhu Hassan was accompanied by Hon. Amb. Liberata Mulamula, Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation and Dr. Damas D. Ndumbaro, Minister of Constitutional and Legal Affairs. This was the first time that a President of the Mechanism has met with a Head of State of Tanzania.
During the meeting, President Gatti Santana commended the President of Tanzania for her leadership and personal interest in the Mechanism’s mandate and her strong committment to multilateralism. On behalf of the Mechanism, she expressed gratitude for the longstanding and invaluable contribution of Tanzania as Host State of the Mechanism’s Arusha branch since 2012, as well as of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) until its closure in 2015. In this regard President Gatti Santana recalled with appreciation that Her Excellency President Samia Suluhu Hassan had represented the Tanzanian Government at the inauguration of the Mechanism premises in 2016 and she acknowledged the excellent support that Tanzania has provided throughout to the Mechanism, its Judges, Principals, and staff.
President Gatti Santana then briefed Her Excellency President Samia Suluhu Hassan on the Mechanism’s current activities and challenges, as well as its achievements and progress made. In addition, she shared with Her Excellency President Samia Suluhu Hassan the core priorities of her new Presidency of the Mechanism. The exchange further focussed on the case against Félicien Kabuga before the Mechanism, the importance of preserving and maintaining the ICTR archives, the future of the Mechanism’s Arusha premises and the empowerment of women and gender balance. Her Excellency President Samia Suluhu Hassan assured the Mechanism of the continued cooperation of her country in fulfilling its responsibilities as Host State and its full support of the Mechanism’s remaining work .
Finally, President Gatti Santana and Her Excellency President Samia Suluhu Hassan discussed ways in which cooperation could be strengthened between the Mechanism and Tanzania. In this context, President Gatti Santana highly praised the dedication of the Mechanism’s many Tanzanian staff, particularly at the Arusha branch, and noted also that “the Mechanism is fortunate to have two highly skilled and experienced Tanzanian Judges” on its judicial roster.
After her audience with the Tanzanian Head of State, President Gatti Santana had the pleasure to meet with Mr. Zlatan Milišić, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Tanzania.
The Mechanism was established by the United Nations Security Council on 22 December 2010, and is mandated to perform a number of essential functions previously carried out by the ICTR and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Its branch in Arusha, Tanzania, started operating on 1 July 2012. President Gatti Santana is the Mechanism’s third President and assumed her functions on 1 July 2022.
