Acceptance of international criminal justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
When the XIV Winter Olympic Games took place in Sarajevo in 1984, nobody expected that war would begin only seven years later and kill hundreds of thousands of people living in the former Yugoslavia. That millions of them would be ethnically cleansed and displaced, most of them for good. That hundreds of mass graves would be scattered around, and that war crimes unseen in Europe since the Second World War would be repeated. That severe crimes like systematic rape, torture, and massive destruction of cultural heritage and property would finally culminate with genocide. Consequently, Bosnia and Herzegovina (and the countries of the former Yugoslavia) triggered an immense boost in international criminal law and international criminal justice. That experience, during and after the war that took place from 1992 to 1995, can offer lots of valuable input. Not everything that had been done was good or perfect, but it was of great importance for the further development of international criminal law and international criminal justice in a world that is still searching for appropriate responses to the grave war crimes that occur every day, and for the development of mechanisms and practices that will ensure justice for victims and society and be perceived as such. The atrocities of the Bosnian War served as a wake-up call for the international community, highlighting the urgent need for mechanisms to hold perpetrators of such heinous crimes accountable. The establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia marked a significant milestone in this regard, pioneering the prosecution of individuals responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict. However, challenges persist in ensuring access to justice for all victims and addressing the root causes of conflict to prevent future atrocities. The lessons learned in Bosnia and Herzegovina remain crucial in shaping efforts to achieve lasting peace and accountability worldwide.
Downloads
References
Arthur, P. (2001). Identities in Transition. Cambridge University Press.
Bieber, F. (2006). Post-war Bosnia: ethnicity, inequality and public sector governance. Palgrave Macmillan.
Biserko, S. (2012). Yugoslavia’s Implosion. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee.
Boas, G., & Schabas, W. (Eds). (2003). International Criminal Law Developments in the Case Law of the ICTY. Brill Academic Publishers.
Campbell, K. (2003). Rape as a “crime against humanity”: trauma, law and justice in the ICTY. Journal of Human Rights, 2(4), 507–515. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475483032000137093.
Clark, J. N. (2009a). Genocide, war crimes and the conflict in Bosnia: understanding the perpetrators. Journal of Genocide Research, 11(4), 421–445. https://doi.org/10.1177/1057567720940786.
Clark, J. N. (2009b). Judging the ICTY: has it achieved its objectives? Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 9(1–2), 123–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/14683850902723454.
De Brito, A. B., Gonzalez-Enriquez, C., & Aguilar, P. (Eds). (2001). The Politics of Memory. Oxford University Press.
Džihana, A., & Volčić, Z. (Eds). (2011). Media and national ideologies: analyses and reporting on war crime trials in the former Yugoslavia. Mediacentar.
Elster, J. (2004). Closing the Books: Transitional Justice in Historical Perspective. Cambridge University Press.
Franović, I. (2008). Dealing with the Past in the Context of Ethno nationalism: The Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. Berghof Occasional Paper, 29. https://d-nb.info/1077111983/34.
Garbett, C. (2010). Localising Criminal Justice: An Overview of National Prosecutions at the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Human Right Law Review, 10(3), 558–568. https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngq023.
Halilovich, H. (2013). Places of Pain. Berghahn Books.
Hayner, P. (2001). Unspeakable Truths. Routledge.
Kastner, P. (2017). Transitional Justice and the Challenging Pursuit of Social Justice. Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, 34(2). https://doi.org/10.22329/wyaj.v34i2.5042.
Lawry-White, M. (2015). The reparative effect of truth seeking in transitional justice. International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 64(1), 141–178. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020589314000645.
Leonard, M. A., Damjanovic, B., Simic, G., & Aldikacti Marshall, G. (2016). Peace Building in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Effects of Ingroup Identification, Outgroup Trust and Intergroup Forgiveness on Intergroup Contact. Peace and Conflict Studies, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.46743/1082-7307/2016.1311.
Malcolm, N. (2002). Bosnia: A Short History. Pan Books.
Malešević, S. (2006). Identity as Ideology. Palgrave Macmillan.
Malešević, S. (2023). Why Humans Fight. Cambridge University Press.
Martin-Ortega, O. (2012). Prosecuting War Crimes at Home: Lessons from the War Crimes Chamber in the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. International Criminal Law Review, 12, 589–628. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718123-01204006.
Omerović, E., & Alić, G. (2017). Perception of the ICTY in Bosnia and Herzegovina – the tribunal between law and politics. SEE Law Journal, 1(3), 24–45. https://doi.org/10.25234/pv/21105.
Saxon, D. (2005). Exporting Justice: Perceptions of the ICTY among the Serbian, Croatian, and Muslim Communities in the Former Yugoslavia. Journal of Human Rights, 4, 559–572. https://doi.org/10.1080/14754830500332837.
Seizović, Z. (2014). Bosnia Nowadays: A Disguised Failed State. Dobra knjiga.
Šimić, G. (2008). The influence of the Hague Tribunal on the criminal legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Federal Ministry of Justice.
Šimić, G. (2023b). ICTY and the Question of Justice. The Harvard Human Rights Journal, 36. https://journals.law.harvard.edu/hrj/2017/12/icty-and-the-question-of-justice/.
Šimić, G. (2023a). Transitional litigation. University VITEZ.
Smeulers, A. (2004). What Transforms Ordinary People into Gross Human Rights Violators? In S. C. Poe (Ed.), Understanding Human Rights Violations. Routledge.
Spoerri, M. (2011). Justice Imposed: How Policies of Conditionality Effect Transitional Justice in the Former Yugoslavia. Europe-Asia Studies, 63(10), 1827–1851.
Stover, E., & Weinstein, H. M. (Eds). (2004). My neighbor, my enemy: Justice and community in the aftermath of mass atrocity. Cambridge University Press.
Teitel, R. (2000). Transitional Justice. Oxford University Press.
Urban Walker, M. (2016). Transformative Reparations? A Critical Look at a Current Trend in Thinking about Gender-Just Reparations. International Journal of Transitional Justice, 10(1), 108–125. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijv029.
Wald, P. (2002). Punishment of War Crimes by International Tribunals. Social Research, 69(4), 1119–1134. https://doi.org/10.1353/sor.2002.0039.
Waller, J. (2002). Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing. Oxford University Press.
Copyright (c) 2024 G. Šimić
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
