[JURIST] The UN Security Council [official website] approved a resolution [Res. 1800 text] Wednesday authorizing Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to appoint four additional judges to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website]. The Security Council unanimously approved the measure to enable the ICTY to try all defendants by the end of 2008. The resolution allows the president of the ICTY to appoint four additional temporary judges, bringing the total number of ad litem judges to 16. The four additional ad litem judges may only serve for the duration of year, resigning their posts in December. The increased number will allow the ICTY to hear up to eight cases simultaneously.

Under the ICTY's completion strategy [ICTY materials], all trials are supposed to finish this year, and all appeals are scheduled to finish by the end of 2010. In 2005, ICTY officials expressed concern [JURIST report] that the ICTY would miss the 2008 deadline to wrap up all of the criminal trials, blaming Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian leaders for failing to turn over key fugitives. The UN News Centre has more.