Anonymization of Judgments in Cases of War Crimes is Illegal

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, acting upon the appeal filed by the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), has found that the practice of anonymization of judgments is in violation of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance and the Law on Personal Data Protection. In his Decision, the Commissioner issued an order to the Higher Court in Belgrade to deliver to the HLC the judgment without illegal anonymization, under the threat of the imposition of a fine.

Human losses in NATO bombing of Serbia and Montenegro

In Serbia (without Kosovo) and Montenegro, 275 people lost their lives as a result of the NATO bombing: 180 civilians, 90 members of the Yugoslav Army (YA) and five were members of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior (MUP). Except three Chinese nationals, all were citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY).

In Kosovo, 484 people were killed: 267 civilians (209 Albanian and 58 non-Albanian), 171 members of the YA, 20 members of the Serbian MUP and 26 members of the KLA (19 of whom died in the NATO bombing of the Dubrava prison, near Istok).

Here you can see list of names of people who lost their lives in NATO bombing.

Zone of (non)responsibility

Monday, 24^th March, marks fifteen years since the Serbian army and police waged its systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing and violence directed against the Kosovo Albanian civilian population during the NATO intervention against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) calls on the state institutions of the Republic of Serbia to secure justice for the victims of the crimes in Kosovo and their family members, by prosecuting all those responsible, regardless of their rank at the time of the commission of crimes or within the current hierarchies of power, and by providing just satisfaction to the victims for the suffering they endured.

UN Special Rapporteur on Transitional Justice invited to visit Serbia

On 12th March 2014, the Coalition for Access to Justice invited Pablo de Greiff, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, to visit Serbia, in order to make recommendations to the Government of Serbia regarding the measures which will help achieve justice for victims of crimes and other gross human rights violations committed during the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia.

A state that does not care for war victims

At the end of February 2014, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) was informed that the Ombudsman, the Office for Human and Minority Rights of the Government of Serbia (Office for Human Rights) and the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality (Commissioner) had given up on the initiative for the passing of the new Law on Civilian Victims of War, which would acknowledge the rights of all the citizens of Serbia who have been victims of war crimes and other serious violations of human rights related to the wars of the 1990s. The HLC points out that denying the status of civilian victims to numerous categories has all the characteristics of a systematic violation of human rights, and further, that the state’s treatment of these individuals is unprecedented in the former Yugoslav region.

Štrpci – 21 years without justice and recognition

On Thursday, 27th February 2014, it will be twenty-one years since the crime at Štrpci (BiH), where members of the Army of the Republic of Srpska (VRS) abducted 19 Bosniak civilians – citizens of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – from a train travelling from Belgrade to Bar and subsequently killed them. Women in Black, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights and the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) reiterate that the responsibility for this crime lies with the institutions of the Republic of Serbia and condemn their present-day shameful treatment of victims of this crime by refusing to recognize them as civilian victims of war.

Untruths spoken by President of Republic of Srpska about Humanitarian Law Center

We are appalled at the utterly irresponsible statement the President of the Republic of Srpska made during the programme entitled Interview, broadcast on 12 February 2014 on the Radio-Television of Republika Srpska, suggesting that the Humanitarian Law Center is providing financial support to the current protests in Bosnia. We insist that this is a blatant untruth and a dishonorable attempt to deceive the general public in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the entire region.

On guilty verdict in Bihać crime case

The Higher Court in Belgrade on 4 February 2014 passed a judgment convicting Đuro Tadić of the war crime against civilians committed on 23 September 1992 in the village of Duljci (municipality of Bihać, BiH), and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. The Humanitarian Law Center  (HLC) points out that the judgment is based  on convincing evidence presented at the trial, and that the accountability of Đuro Tadić was proved beyond reasonable doubt, but that the sentence imposed on him is an insult to the victims.

Court does not recognise former Croatian POWs’ right to redress

The First Basic Court in Belgrade, following the proceedings which lasted six years, passed a judgment dismissing the compensation claim against the Republic of Serbia filed by the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) in November 2007 on behalf of 12 Croatian citizens for torture they endured in the JNA (Yugoslav People’s Army) prison camps in Sremska Mitrovica and Begejci in 1991. The HLC notes that this judgement denies the victims of severe crimes their right to obtain just compensation, which is guaranteed by both domestic and international law.

ICTY Appeals Chamber’s Judgment against Vlastimir Đorđević

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) today delivered its final guilty verdict against the former Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs of Serbia and Chief of its Public Security Division (RJB) Vlastimir Đorđević, reducing his sentence to 18 years of prison, instead of 27 years as initially imposed.