A spokesperson for UNSG BAN Ki-Moon announced that a headquarters agreement was signed on Friday to establish the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Netherlands.
The SG said, in the statement issued by the spokesperson, that “The Agreement will now be submitted to the Parliament of the Netherlands for ratification. In the meantime, the United Nations and the Netherlands authorities will continue taking steps to establish the Tribunal in The Hague”.
The statement also says that “the Secretary-General has received the report of the Selection Panel constituted pursuant to article 2 of the Annex to Security Council resolution 1757 (2007) to make recommendations regarding the selection of judges of the Special Tribunal … [and] The Secretary-General has accepted the Selection Panel’s recommendations and will announce the names of those selected at an appropriate time in the future. The judges will assume their functions on a date to be determined by the Secretary-General as set forth in the Annex to resolution 1757 (2007)”.
Unlike the other UN-based International Tribunals, the one for Lebanon will have a “Management Committee”, which “will be composed of the major donors to the Special Tribunal and will have as its main responsibility providing advice and policy direction on all non-judicial aspects of the operations of the Special Tribunal, including questions of efficiency”.
The SG’s announcement is posted here.