# Authoritative sources — ICTY / ICTR / IRMCT

Sources that may be cited, and how to access them. Read this whenever verifying a citation or deciding whether a source is authoritative.

## Tier 1 — primary, authoritative

### irmct.org — the Mechanism (and the legacy of both tribunals)

The official website of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. Because the Mechanism continues the jurisdiction, rights, obligations and essential functions of both the ICTY and the ICTR, and safeguards their archives, irmct.org is the central authoritative entry point for all three institutions.

Key URL patterns:
- `https://www.irmct.org/en/cases` — the consolidated case list (ICTY, ICTR, and Mechanism cases), each with a case number and status (Completed / Transferred / etc.)
- `https://www.irmct.org/en/cases/mict-[number]` — the landing page for a Mechanism case (e.g. `mict-13-56` for Mladić)
- `https://www.irmct.org/sites/default/files/casedocuments/mict-[number]/…` — direct links to case documents
- `https://www.irmct.org/en/documents/basic-documents` — the Statutes, Rules of Procedure and Evidence, and foundational instruments
- `https://www.irmct.org/en/about` — institutional facts (dates, branches, organs)

### cld.irmct.org — the Case Law Database

`https://cld.irmct.org/` — the Mechanism's Case Law Database. Organises the jurisprudence of the ICTY, ICTR and Mechanism by legal finding, with paragraph-level references. Extremely useful for locating *which* decision and *which* paragraph established a given proposition. Tier 1 (Mechanism-issued), but the underlying decision remains the citation — use the CLD as the map, then verify the decision.

### ucr.irmct.org — the Unified Court Records (UCR) database

`https://ucr.irmct.org/` — the Unified Court Records database, the official repository of court records of the ICTY, ICTR and Mechanism. The authoritative source for filings, decisions, and judgments by case and document number.

### Legacy tribunal sites

- **ICTY**: `https://www.icty.org/` — the legacy website of the ICTY (closed 2017). Still hosts case pages (e.g. `https://www.icty.org/en/case/tadic`), judgments, and the documentary record. Authoritative for ICTY-issued documents.
- **ICTR**: `https://unictr.irmct.org/` — the legacy website of the ICTR (closed 2015), now maintained under the Mechanism. Authoritative for ICTR-issued documents.

### legal-tools.org

The ICC Legal Tools Database, maintained by the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC together with partner organisations. Hosts ICTY, ICTR, and Mechanism documents alongside ICC and other tribunals. Useful when irmct.org is slow or a specific document is easier to locate there. Document numbers and metadata should match irmct.org; where they diverge, the irmct.org / legacy-site version controls.

## Tier 2 — secondary (must be labelled when used)

These host or analyse tribunal documents but are not the issuing authority. Citable for context and scholarship; never authoritative on the tribunals' own findings.

- **UN Documentation** (`https://www.un.org/`, `https://documents.un.org/`) — Security Council resolutions (827, 955, 1966, and the biennial review resolutions), Secretary-General reports, completion-strategy reports.
- **Academic commentary** — Journal of International Criminal Justice; Antonio Cassese, *International Criminal Law*; William Schabas, *The UN International Criminal Tribunals* and *Genocide in International Law*; Guénaël Mettraux, *International Crimes and the Ad Hoc Tribunals* and *The Law of Command Responsibility*. Authoritative for doctrine, never for the holding itself.
- **Trial-monitoring and NGO archives** — the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR), the International Justice Monitor (Open Society Justice Initiative), Human Rights Watch, the Coalition for the ICC. Useful for context and procedural history.
- **Refworld / UNHCR** (`https://www.refworld.org/`) — hosts ICTY/ICTR documents in its International Criminal Tribunals collection.

When a Tier 2 source is the only available source for a proposition, the output must say so. Example: *"As reported by IWPR (Tier 2; the underlying decision was not retrievable in this session)…"*

## Never authoritative

Wikipedia, Grokipedia, social media, AI-generated summaries, blogs (unless the author is a judge or counsel writing in a formal, attributable publication, in which case treat as Tier 2 doctrine). If one of these is the only source, the proposition is unverified — narrow the claim or ask the user.

## A note on confidential and redacted documents

Many tribunal documents exist in multiple versions: confidential, public redacted, and (occasionally) confidential ex parte. Always prefer and cite the **public** or **public redacted** version, and say which version is being cited. Never attempt to reconstruct redacted content or to identify a protected witness. See `verification-workflow.md`.