Is NATO Authorized or Obliged to Arrest Persons Indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia?

• Published in: European Journal of International Law
• Main Author: Gaeta, Paola
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 1998
• Subjects: Kaleidoscope; Dayton; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://ejil.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/9/1/174; https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/9.1.174

This paper considers whether the NATO-led multinational force in Bosnia and Herzegovina is authorized to arrest persons Indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and, if so, whether it is also obliged to carry out arrests. After critically scrutinizing views put forward on this topic in the legal literature, the author concludes that the multinational force is legally entitled to execute arrest warrants in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the strength of Article VI, para. 4, of Annex 1-A to the Dayton Peace Accord, as implemented by the North Atlantic Council through a resolution adopted on 16 December 1995. The author argues that two consequences follow from this view. Firstly, the power of arrest may be exercised concurrently with that of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the two Entities making up this state. Secondly, regarding cooperation with the Tribunal, the Nato-led force has so far only been empowered to execute arrest warrants, while it has not yet been authorized to execute other Tribunal orders. The author submits that, by contrast, the NATO-led force is not obliged to arrest persons indicted by the ICTY, nor is such an obligation incumbent upon individual troop-contributing states qua states.