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The Kosovo Specialist Chambers was established to prosecute and punish crimes against humanity and war crimes related to the conflict in Kosovo during the period 1998-2000. In a decision of 30 November 2022, the President of the Chambers, Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova, has assigned Trial Panel II for the trial of a Hasim Thaçi and three other senior officials of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Dr Guénaël Mettraux, an adjunct professor at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, has been named as one of the judges assigned to the panel.

Professor Mettraux has appeared as Defence counsel before various international criminal jurisdictions and represented several high-ranking military and civilian leaders accused of international crimes. He has appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. He has published extensively in the field of international criminal law, including a series on international crimes with Oxford University Press. Professor Mettraux is a member of the Editorial Committee of the Journal of International Criminal Justice and the Board of Editors of the International Criminal Law Review.

Fergal Gaynor, who recently spoke at the Irish Centre for Human Rights on the accountability challenges in relation to Syria, has been appointed a reserve judge on the panel.