Mohamed Chande Othman
 Justice Othman    (Judge) | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 1 January 1952 Tanganyika Territory | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Dar es Salaam, Webster University | ||||||||||||||||||||
Former Chief Justice of Tanzania,
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Mohamed Chande Othman is the former Chief Justice of Tanzania, a position he held from 28 December 2010 to 18 January 2017 after serving as both a High Court and Appeal Court Judge.
International prosecutor
Justice Othman’s previous experience includes that of Prosecutor General of East Timor, Chief of Prosecutions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and Senior Legal Adviser to the Prosecutor of the ICTR. In addition, he has also worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
UN appointee
Under the flag of the United Nations, Justice Othman has served as:
- Member of the UN Human Rights Council’s High-Level Commission of Inquiry into the Situation in Lebanon following the Israel-Lebanon Armed Conflict in 2006.
- The UN Human Rights Council‘s Independent Expert on the human rights situation in the Sudan (2009-2010).
- Head of the UN Independent Panel of Experts, charged with the assessment and examination of new information relating to the tragic death of the former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld.
In December 2014 a Resolution was adopted unanimously by the UN General Assembly, authorising the Secretary-General to appoint a UN Panel of Experts to investigate new evidence about the 1961 plane crash in which UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld was killed. Chande Othman was appointed to head the panel. In June 2015 Justice Othman submitted his report to UNSG Ban Ki-Moon, who stated that ‘further inquiry or investigation would be necessary to finally establish the facts’.[1]
Following the adoption of a further Resolution 71/260 by the UNGA in December 2016, Justice Othman was selected in 2017 by Secretary-General António Guterres as Eminent Person with the mandate to review potential new information, assess its probative value, and determine the scope that any further investigation should take. The Judge has submitted two further reports to the UNSG; his report of 2019 can be found here. Justice Othman is continuing the investigation and is expected to submit his final report to the UNSG in 2022.[2]
On 30 December 2022, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution A/77/L.31, which authorises the renewal of the UN’s ‘Investigation into the conditions and circumstances resulting in the tragic death of Dag Hammarskjöld and of the members of the party accompanying him.’ It further authorises the reappointment of the Eminent Person, Judge Mohamed Chande Othman, to lead the investigation.
The Resolution was initiated by Sweden and co-sponsored by 141 Member States (out of 193). The US and the UK did not co-sponsor the resolution.
The Resolution follows Judge Othman’s latest report (A/76/892), which says:
- "…I respectfully submit that the burden of proof to conduct a full review of records and archives resulting in full disclosure has not been discharged at the present time.
- "Indeed, information received from other sources under the present mandate underscores that it is almost certain that these Member States (that is to say, the USA, the UK, and South Africa) created, held or were otherwise aware of specific and important information regarding the cause of the tragic event.
- "That information is yet to be disclosed."[3]
Publications
His publications include books and peer-reviewed papers on International Humanitarian Law, Refugee Law, Criminal Law and Evidence, and Peacekeeping.[4]
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Dag Hammarskjöld - US, UK and South Africa still withholding crucial information | Article | 10 October 2019 | Ludwig De Braeckeleer | “Communications sent from the CX-52 cryptographic machine used by Dag Hammarskjöld appear to have been intercepted by British and United States signals and intelligence agencies as a result of a secret interception and decryption setting that those agencies held that enabled them to intercept surreptitiously.” |
| Document:UN Wants to Know If Spy Agencies Hold Answer to Dag Hammarskjöld’s Death | Article | 15 July 2017 | Alan Cowell Rick Gladstone | After 56 years and many investigations, there is new hope that secrets lurking in Western intelligence archives could solve "the biggest whodunnit" in United Nations history: the mysterious death of Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld... |
References
- ↑ "Dr Susan Williams - School of Advanced Study"
- ↑ "UNGA Resolution 74/248 - Investigation into the conditions and circumstances resulting in the tragic death of Dag Hammarskjöld and of the members of the party accompanying him"
- ↑ "Mandate to renew the UN Investigation into the death of UNSG Dag Hammarskjöld"
- ↑ "Biography Mohamed Chande Othman"
