As acting Registrar of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and an Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, I have the honour of opening the Swearing-in Ceremony for the judges of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and to thank all of you for attending this event.

For many of us here today, this Ceremony has an extraordinary value. It represents the successful culmination of intense years of negotiations, and evidence of the commitment of all those involved in the process of establishing the Court and all those States who have provided political and financial support to it. Indeed, less than a year after the signing of the Agreement establishing it, the Special Court has become a reality and will soon become fully operational.

What is taking place here today, however, has also a broader meaning. This Ceremony presents another step in the reconstruction of Sierra Leone after long years of conflict, and makes a public statement that crimes as atrocious as the ones committed in this country should not go unpunished and that there can be no lasting peace without accountability.

In this light, I would like to take a moment to thank personally for their presence here today H.E. the President, whose letter to the United Nations Secretary General on 12 June 2000 first requested the establishment of the Special Court, and of H.E. the Vice President who personally led the negotiations on behalf of Sierra Leone, and also to pay tribute to them for their courage and vision. I would also like to thank the representative of the United Nations, and through him the Secretary General of the United Nations, for the constant assistance and support the United Nations and the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Sierra Leone have offered to the establishment of the Court.

Also, I would like to express the deepest gratitude to the Member States present in the Management Committee for the Special Court, and in the Group of Interested States for their unfailing support of the Court.

Finally, I would like to thank my staff for their significant effort in putting this event together in difficult circumstances and, also, the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone for his patience and tolerance in allowing the Registry to use the Bank’s premises.

Before we proceed, I would like to explain how the ceremony will unfold. I will be administering the oath.  The judges will be called in alphabetical order and come to the podium for their solemn declaration. The Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Sierra Leone and the Acting Special Representative to the Secretary General, as witnesses, will sign the official copy of the solemn declaration. Each judge will then be congratulated by the H.E the President and the H.E. the Vice-President before returning to their seat.

We shall now proceed.