114 results

This report examines the effectiveness of war crimes prosecutions in Serbia. While the War Crimes Chamber (WCC) and the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP) have had some success, significant concerns exist - such as opposition from ethnic nationalists. Despite shortcomings, the...

Some habits die hard. This is especially true of ways of thinking. Despite significant changes in national and international law and practice in the last thirty years—the period that corresponds with the emergence of transitional justice as a field—the recent upheaval in the Middle East and Northern Africa region has provoked proposals that hearken back to a period that we may have thought long gone.

The application of transitional justice mechanisms, such as war crimes trials and reparations, has significant flaws in Serbia. Lack of progress may be even greater in truth-seeking and vetting of public officials. Serbia must do much more in all areas of transitional justice, for its...

The War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which began its work 9 March 2005, has been the most significant national effort in Bosnia and Herzegovina to investigate and prosecute persons allegedly involved in serious violations of international law during the 1992–...

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of some of the major issues and recent developments in transitional justice in Serbia and Montenegro. In particular, it examines the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), local trials, the national Truth a...

The transitional justice review of Bosnia and Herzegovina says that in spite of important achievements in Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of transitional justice, a number of substantive concerns remain. The report's recommendations include supporting the implementation of the Nationa...

Background on the massive human rights violations in the states that declared independence from the Former Yugoslavia from 1991 onwards, including Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, resulting in the deaths of over 140,000 people and four million displaced. The fact sheet cove...

The Documentation Affinity Group (DAG) was established in 2005 by ICTJ and five partner organizations as a peer-to-peer network with a primary focus on human rights documentation. Documenting Truth collects the best practices derived from the work of the DAG organizations in Cambodia,...

It is highly unlikely that we will see ad hoc international tribunals or elaborate hybrid courts such as the SCSL and the ECCC in the future, asserted ICTJ President David Tolbert at an expert meeting about the future of international justice in light of past experiences and progress made at the...

Bosnians have a range of expectations of the ICTY—or as it is known in the region, “the Hague Tribunal” or simply “The Hague”—comparing their hopes to the goals enunciated by the Security Council when it created the Tribunal and by the ICTY itself.

The disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) following the 1992-1994 war helped facilitate the transition to peace. However, the almost total failure of international and domestic authorities to support demobilized combata...

The disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) following the 1992-1994 war helped facilitate the transition to peace. However, the almost total failure of international and domestic authorities to support demobilized combata...

On March 31, 2010, the Serbian parliament adopted a declaration "condemning in strongest terms the crime committed in July 1995 against Bosniac population of Srebrenica" and apologizing to the families of the victims. The declaration is a step in the right direction and, potentially, an educational...

ICTJ and the Center for Global Affairs of New York University (NYU) co-hosted a panel discussion on the impact of international ad hoc tribunals in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the possible lessons these courts’ experiences hold for the International Criminal Court (ICC). In a discussion...