Since the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, both International Tribunals have grown tremendously in terms of resources. Despite this growth, the International Tribunals have rendered judgments in only fifteen cases and conducted inordinately long trials—a fault for which, perhaps more than any other, they can be justly criticized. The Secretary- General of the United Nations recently appointed an expert group to review the efficiency of the operation of the International Tribunals and make recommendations for improvement. Following the release of the group's report, the General Assembly requested that the Secretary-General obtain comments from the International Tribunals on the experts’ recommendations. The ICTYjudges, for their part, considered these recommendations in a report to the United Nations setting forth a long-term strategy for improving the operation of the Tribunal.

On June 30, 2000, at the conclusion of its fifth session, the Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court (Preparatory Commission or commission) completed the first phase of its work with the adoption of draft Elements of Crimes and Rules of Procedure and Evidence (Rules). The first five sessions took place from February 16 to 26, July 26 to August 13, and November 29 to December 17,1999, and from March 13 to 31, and J u n e 12 to 30, 2000.

On July 17, 1998, the United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of the International Criminal Court (Diplomatic Conference) had adopted the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Statute). At the same time, it decided “to take all possible measures to ensure the coming into operation of the International Criminal Court without undue delay and to make the necessary arrangements for the commencement of its functions,” purposes for which it established the Preparatory Commission.

On May 25,2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus two Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child: the Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (Children in Armed Conflict Protocol) and the Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Pornography and Child Prostitution (Sale of Children Protocol).1 These instruments represent major advances in the international effort to strengthen and enforce norms for the protection of the most vulnerable children, who desperately need the world's attention. The Children in Armed Conflict Protocol deals realistically and reasonably with the difficult issues of minimum ages for compulsory recruitment, voluntary recruitment, and participation in hostilities. The Protocol raises the age for military conscription to eighteen from fifteen years, as stipulated under existing international law; obliges states parties to raise the minimum age for voluntary recruitment to an age above the current fifteen-year international standard; and requires states parties to take all feasible measures to ensure that personnel in their national armed forces who are not yet eighteen do not take a direct part in hostilities.