Report from the Debate: “ReConstruction of Responsibility – Societal Memory of Genocide”
On the occasion of marking the 29 years since the Srebrenica genocide, the Humanitarian Law Center organised a public debate on July 10, 2024, titled “ReConstruction of Responsibility – Social Memory of Genocide”. The aim of the debate was to stimulate critical reflection on the political discourse constructed around the genocide, in which the nation becomes a defensive mechanism that avoids and prevents discussion about responsibility.
The debate featured presentations by Marija Mandić, a linguist and senior research associate at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory; Milan St. Protić, a historian and diplomat; and Srđan Milošević, a lawyer and historian. They spoke about how we talk about Srebrenica today, the relationship between responsibility and guilt, and the role of the nation in the official narrative.
Jovana Kolarić, coordinator and researcher at HLC, moderated the debate, and opened it by presenting court-established facts about the legal qualification of the Srebrenica genocide through final judgments of international courts. She mentioned that the Office of War Crimes Prosecutor, in its 20 years of existence, has filed only five indictments for crimes committed in July 1995 related to Srebrenica. None of these indictments mention genocide, and in three of them, Srebrenica is not mentioned at all. However, although these facts are rarely discussed in Serbia except when they are denied, Srebrenica is still talked about.
On the occasion of marking the 29 years since the Srebrenica genocide, the Humanitarian Law Center invites you to the debate “
The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) will present the Report on War Crimes Trials in Serbia during 2023 on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, at 10:00 AM. The presentation will take place in the Main Conference Hall of the Media Centre in Belgrade (Terazije 3, 2nd floor).
