 It had been discussed that these goals may not be realistic and were likely to change.The United Nations Security Council called upon the tribunal to finish its work by 31 December 2014 to prepare for its closure and transfer of its responsibilities to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT or Mechanism) which had begun functioning for the ICTR branch on 1 July 2012.As of spring 2015, the Residual Mechanism had taken over much of the operations of the tribunal, and the tribunal announced on 2 February 2015 that it was significantly reducing staff with the goal of wrapping up operations and closing the tribunal by the end of 2015.