By the end of his time as the ICTY’s Chief Prosecutor he had signed the Tribunal’s frst indictments, including those against Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić for the Srebrenica genocide.

Richard Goldstone was appointed as the ICTY’s frst Chief Prosecutor1 in July 1994. This ended the fourteen-month search for a candidate who met the criteria of the Security Council, especially Russia's requirement that the candidate for this position not be from NATO countries or a Muslim. South African President Nelson Mandela supported his appointment on the condition that Goldstone would only serve half his four-year term as prosecutor before returning to South Africa’s Constitutional Court, to which he had been appointed towards the end of the apartheid era in 1994.

"The importance of the Karadžić and Mladić indictments, and especially the “Srebrenica Indictment,” is the demonstration that justice has a long memory, and even after 13 years of hiding they were brought to face those who accused them of genocide and other serious war crimes."