Thank you, Chair. Indeed, I would like to premise my statement on the precept laid by Ms. Carla Del Ponte in respect of persons who have served their sentences in foreign detention centres following judicial decisions. And as you are aware, unfortunately, such a situation commands the Registrar and his staff to be seen as responsible for that legal void, but the same Registrar and his staff are required to find solutions, to find ideal solutions to that humanitarian dilemma.

And let me admit that, within the completion strategy – and this is an appeal— we need to spur the political will of states to accept to seek proper solutions to the situation of convicts who have completed paying their debt to the international community.

It is very touching to note that on the eve of discharge, a convict who has served a sentence delivered by an international court is not in a position to find his moral freedom. I believe that we have to accept to take up this challenge, because that crime, we had all condemned and ensured that the culprits pay back, and they did. And based on the reports we have received, they prepared themselves to return and reconcile with the human community, as the acts which they committed almost cast them out of that human society.

I believe that we all need to work collectively to find that solution. This is like an appeal, a distress call, because it behoves us, those of us from the registry, to implement the decisions taken by Judges, and especially when states are ready to free these persons, and they call on the Registrar saying, “So what do you want us to do with these people who have finished serving their time?” And believe me, the Registrar is not in a position to tell those states what should be done. So this is the commencement of a process which will continue to grow in intensity. And today we must also take into consideration this factor. Thank you very much.