Posts Written By: hlcadmin

ANNOUNCEMENT: A Debate on War Crimes Trials in Serbia in 2016

On May 18th 2017 the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) will present “The Report on War Crimes Trials in 2016”, and host a debate about the findings and development in the prosecution of war crimes before Serbian courts. The event will be held at the Media Centre in Belgrade (Terazije 3, 2^nd Floor), starting at 11:00.

The Report encompasses analyses of 28 cases monitored by the HLC’s team before the war crimes departments of the Higher Court and the Court of Appeals in Belgrade, as well as before the courts of general jurisdiction. The Report also contains an overview of general findings regarding war crimes trials held during 2016, as well as important social and political events relevant to war crimes trials in Serbia.

The initiative for assessing the constitutionality of the Law on the Rights of Civilian Invalids of War dismissed: The Constitutional Court does not recognize discrimination against civilian victims of war

The Serbian Constitutional Court has adopted a conclusion dismissing the initiative for assessing the constitutionality of the Law on the Rights of Civilian Invalids of War that the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) filed in May 2016. The HLC states that the formalistic argument rendered by the Constitutional Court was not a thorough constitutional assessment of this disputed Law, but a decision reduced to an insufficiently reasoned reproduction of the provisions of the Law, which placed the highest judicial institution in the country on the same side as the other government bodies that maintain this discriminatory legislation, which disenfranchises most of the civilian victims of war in Serbia.

(srpski) Đavo i njegov šegrt u Hrtkovcima

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(srpski) Zašto niko ne izručuje Srbiji optužene za ratne zločine?

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Excess of politics, lack of evidence

A state which doesn’t have a war crimes prosecutor for over a year wants to try war crimes indictees from the whole region. A state which doesn’t act on Interpol red notices (Momir Stojanovic, the three wanted members of the Radical party) expects extradition of citizens of other states on the same warrants. A judiciary which has never brought charges for war crimes against any senior official of our country is accusing (without evidence, as we later saw) former and current officials of neighboring countries. A judiciary which hasn’t brought charges for the crimes committed against Kosovo Albanians for three years is seeking the extradition of a Kosovo Albanian to be tried. A state which promised cooperation and assistance to the Special Court for Kosovo hinders it and meddles with its jurisdiction.

(srpski) Zloupotreba statistike

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(srpski) Vukčević: U Srebrenici je bio genocid i tačka

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Hindrance to trials for war crimes committed in Kosovo

The Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP) has not raised a single indictment for war crimes committed in Kosovo in nearly three years. During this period, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) has filed nine criminal complaints for the crimes committed in Peć, Mala Kruša, Savine vode, Vučitrn, Goden, Kraljani, Landovica, Poklek and Rezale. To date, no investigations have been initiated against those charged.

In reply to the HLC’s urgings with regard to the criminal complaints filed, the OWCP has responded that it is in practice prevented from conducting investigations. The EULEX mission, which was the facilitating entity in the past, has not had since May 2014 the mandate to begin new investigations, as that jurisdiction was transferred to local prosecutors. The OWCP has indicated that the position of the Kosovo Ministry of Justice is such that the Republic of Serbia does not have territorial jurisdiction to investigate crimes which are assumed to have been committed in the territory of Kosovo.

On the occasion of the presentation of the Report on the Implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Manipulating data on the effectiveness of the prosecution of war crimes in Serbia

In March 7th and 8^th, 2017, the Serbian delegation presented the Third Periodic Report on the Implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights before the UN Committee for Human Rights in Geneva. The report contains data on the prosecution of war crimes in Serbia. During the discussion with the Committee experts, the delegation offered a distinctly tendentious presentation of the information about the work of state authorities responsible for the prosecution of war crimes, or presented completely false information, all with the aim of creating an illusory image of high efficiency. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) believes that such actions on the part of the delegation illustrate the relationship that the Republic of Serbia has towards its international obligations in the field of human rights, including those obligations derived from the accession negotiations with the European Union. Serbia tends to meet only the minimum formal requirements of international bodies, and creates an illusion of efficiency without the ambition to substantially fulfill its obligations.

(srpski) Višegradski spomenik koji produbljuje mržnju

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