Speaking at a seminar on Tuesday, legal experts praised the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, saying that it has set a precedent in helping to end impunity for war crimes worldwide.

Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's international justice program said that the tribunal

"demonstrated beyond question that an international criminal tribunal for the most serious crimes can work."

He went on to commend the ICTY saying that it "shows the potential and actual effectiveness of these international courts."

When the tribunal was first set up in 1993, critics were wary that it would have any impact on those that broke international law, but now, as Alison Cole, of the Open Society Justice Initiative, described the court "led the way in forging a new path to justice".  

Stephen Rapp, the U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes issues, said that with the arrests of key leaders in the Balkans conflict, it sent a clear message to those who committed war crimes.

He told the audience,

"It sends an enormous signal around the world as we look at similar crimes committed in other places that individuals who commit these crimes won't escape."

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who also spoke at the seminar said,

"Perhaps one of the most remarkable achievements of the ICTY is the fact that every single arrest warrant ... was eventually executed."

That included the indictment of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 1999, scrapping the notion of immunity for heads of state, paving the way for international arrest warrants for Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, Liberian President Charles Taylor, Libya's Moammar Gadhafi and senior ministers of the Kenyan government.

All 161 suspects indicted by the court have now been arrested.

See a report from the Associated Press here.