Graciela Gatti Satana, the new president of International Residual Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (IRMICT) is currently in Rwanda on a visit aimed at strengthening cooperation between the Mechanism and Rwanda. Satana started her inaugural official visit to Rwanda on Tuesday September 6, according to a statement from the UN court. IRMICT is an international entity established by the United Nations Security Council in 2010 to perform the remaining functions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Based in Arusha, Tanzania, the ICTR was established by the UN to try masterminds of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. It was closed in 2015 and its work was taken over by the mechanism. During the visit, Santana is expected to hold a series of meetings with different officials on the latest developments and activities of the Mechanism, the statement says. Furthermore, Santana will visit Genocide memorial sites as well as have the opportunity to talk with members of civil society and meet with associations of victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi. Santana took over as a head of the Mechanism on July 1, replacing Carmel Agius who has led the court since 2019. Recently, local and international activists renewed the call to bring to Rwanda physical archives of the ICTR, which are currently being kept at a facility located in Arusha near the former headquarters of the tribunal. The Security Council has previously suggested to deduct and digitalise the archives to make them transferred to Rwanda.
