The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) supports post-Yugoslav societies in the promotion of the rule of law and the acceptance of the legacy of grave human rights violations, and therefore in establishing the criminal responsibility of perpetrators, in serving justice and in preventing recurrence.
Download the biannual report for 2020/21 here.
The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) supports post-Yugoslav societies in the promotion of the rule of law and the acceptance of the legacy of grave human rights violations, and therefore in establishing the criminal responsibility of perpetrators, in serving justice and in preventing recurrence.
Download the report for 2019 here.
On February 5, 2024, the Trial Panel of the Special Department of the Basic Court in Prishtinë/Priština issued acquittal verdict against the accused Zlatan Arsić regarding the suspicion of committing the criminal offense of war crimes against the civilian population.
The Humanitarian Law Center Kosovo (HLCK), which monitored this judicial process, expresses the assessment that the Trial Panel held a fair trial within a reasonable time. The mail trial in this case concluded within (3) months.
On February 2, 2024, the Trial Panel of the Special Department of the Basic Court in Pristina pronounced the verdict against the accused Duško Arsić, declaring him guilty of war crimes against the civilian population and sentencing him to 13 years in prison.
According to the court, the accused Duško Arsić, in collaboration with other members of the Serbian forces during the period from January to June 1999, participated in the expulsion, looting, burning of property, mistreatment, and killing of Albanian civilians in the municipality of Pristina, with a particular focus on the mistreatment of Artan Krasniqi.
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As part of the RECOM Reconciliation Network project, the Humanitarian Law Center is organising a debate on memory politics and commemorative practices in post-Yugoslav countries under the title Decade of Remembrance.
Researchers will present the results of monitoring commemorations of five events over the past ten years in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia. The discussion will focus on the conflicting narratives of the same events, which, instead of becoming less contentious over time, are showing increasing differences in the interpretation of judicial facts. The goal is to discuss ways to reconcile different perspectives and enhance the influence of the academic community and civil society in creating a culture of memory based on judicial facts and personal experiences.
The debate is taking place in hybrid format on January 25 2024 from 11:00 to 15:00 CET. It is open for public on Zoom, with language interpretation provided, with mandatory registration on the link.
Sorry, this entry is only available in srpski.
This paper focuses on Croatia and the use of hate speech and controversial symbols for the maintenance of symbolic boundaries, the reinforcement of a one-sided version of the past, and the mobilization of voters. The presence and use of the Ustaša salutation, “Ready for the Homeland” (Za dom spremni – ZDS) is a consistent example of those tendencies. In recent years, the salutation has become increasingly intertwined with the legacies of World War Two and the 1990s Croatian War of Independence, while simultaneously reflecting the rise of nationalism and radical-right parties and movements in Croatia as well as abroad. The paper presents insights into the ways ZDS is used to reify national identity, while centering around some of the main actors perpetuating this dynamic, such as politicians and war veterans. Accordingly, it focuses primarily on the case of the memorial plaque erected in 2016 by former members of the Croatian Defence Forces paramilitary unit, which included the ZDS salutation. At one point threatening to topple the government, the case demonstrates how the salute is used to maintain the dominant narrative of the Homeland War.
