Bruno Cathala

As the first incumbent of the post of Registrar, Bruno Cathala set up a strategic plan making it possible to ensure the quality and fairness of justice at the ICC, the safety and security of victims and witnesses, the competence of Defence counsel – in particular by establishing a list of counsel authorised to practice before the Court, public information and outreach, and the Court’s presence in the field through its field offices in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, the Central African Republic and Chad.

This position gave him the opportunity to participate, inter alia, in auditing the operations of courts and drafting a joint report with the Inspectorate of Social Affairs on provisional accommodation and placement of children and adolescents.

He returned on two other occasions to continue the training and to accompany the Director of the École Nationale de la Magistrature (National Magistracy School) who brought the project to fruition.

On 9 September 2002, he was appointed by the first session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Statute of the Court as Director of Common Services, thereby becoming the first official recruited by the organisation.

With the small group of staff members he recruited, in concert with the Host State and the President of the Assembly of States Parties, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein from Jordan, he went on to lay the foundations of the new organisation and to prepare the swearing-in ceremony of the judges who were elected in early 2003 and of the Prosecutor who was elected in April 2003.

He was subsequently elected Registrar of the ICC for a term of five years by an absolute majority of the judges meeting in plenary session on 24 June 2003.

During his term, he laid the foundations for the administration of the organisation, whose purpose, he recalled, was "to produce quality decisions throughout a fair trial", that is, from referral to the Prosecutor through to enforcement.