Why Do Serbian Institutions Hide Information On War Crimes?
On April 5th, 2016, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) presented its report “Access to documents related to crimes against international law in the possession of Serbian institutions: State Secret Prevails over Right to Truth”. The Report offers an overview of the practice in the Republic of Serbia Ministry of the Interior (MUP) and the Ministry of Defence (MO) in the enforcement of the rule on access to information of public importance in relation to investigation into the crimes against international law committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia.
Open access to archives which contain documents that can assist in determining the facts about past human rights violations is a key prerequisite for the establishment of transitional justice processes and mechanisms. In societies like the Serbian, which have experienced periods marked by systematic violence, access to information regarding human rights violations is an essential element of the right of victims and society as a whole to know the truth. 
The third National School of Transitional Justice was opened on the premises of the Humanitarian Law Center’s (HLC) Library on Thursday, March 24th, 2016, with a lecture on establishing justice for war crimes committed in the post-Yugoslav states. The School was opened by Ms. Marijana Toma, the HLC Education Programme Director. The National School of Transitional Justice is a two-month programme of informal education on instruments for dealing with the past, organized and implemented by the HLC as part of its Education Programme. 
On Thursday, March 3, 2016, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) presented the Report on War Crimes Trials in Serbia in 2014 and 2015, and organised a debate on this occasion. The Report includes an analysis of 27 cases that were conducted before the courts in Serbia, the general findings about the war crimes trials, and an overview of the sociopolitical events that were of importance to the war crimes trials in Serbia in the said period. 
The third in a row of meetings on the importance of including transitional justice in the Republic of Serbia’s European integration process was held on February 24th, 2016, in the Humanitarian Law Center’s (HLC) Library. Representatives from the embassies of Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Slovakia, United States of America, Croatia, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and from the OSCE Mission to Serbia, along with a liaison officer from Kosovo participated in the meeting. 
Students of the School for International Training (SIT) visited the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) on Tuesday, 23 February 2016. The students attend various universities in the United States, and they are visiting Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo as part of the SIT Peace Study Programme organized within the Center for Comparative Conflict Studies at the Faculty of Media and Communications. 
On Thursday March 3rd 2016 the Humanitarian Law Center will organize a debate regarding the presentation of the Report on War Crimes Trials 2014-15. The debate will take place in Media Center in Belgrade at 12:00.