Youth Activists From Serbia and Kosovo Visit HLC

A group of youth activists from Serbia and Kosovo visited the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) on November 15^th, 2016. They are visiting the relevant institutions and organizations in Serbia and Kosovo as part of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights programme „LinKS – Linking Kosovo and Serbia“, and in the process, looking at political and social aspects of the relations between the two countries and creating recommendations for the development of their mutual relations.

The HLC Outreach and Fundraising Director, Jelena Krstić, talked with the visitors about the long-lasting endeavours by the HLC to shed light on the importance of achieving justice for crimes committed during the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. In reference to this, she pointed to the lack of an official strategical framework for dealing with the past, insufficiently efficient prosecution of individuals responsible for the commission of war crimes, the neglect of victims’ right to reparation, and the apathetic position of the society as a whole in relation to the crimes committed. The youth activists were particularly intrigued by the wide-spread impunity for war crimes, and they also discussed the ways in which victims of human rights violations in Serbia can acquire compensation for damages and public acknowledgment, the position of the media with regard to the crimes, the engagement of institutions, and civil society initiatives for establishing the truth about the crimes and victims.

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Public’s Right to Know of War Crimes Trials in Serbia

The report by the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) analyzes how are the existing mechanisms for public access to trials for war crimes applied and recommends necessary changes in the legislative framework and practice.  

The public’s right to know about the war crimes trials, as a minimum, includes the right to access the courtroom where trials are held and documentation of war crimes cases (indictments, judgements, transcripts and audio/video records of main hearings); the right to record a trial for the purpose of public presentation and the right to keep court records from war crimes cases. Out of the stated rights, only the right to access the courtroom and monitor the trial is strictly adhered to in Serbia and, therefore, it is not specifically analyzed in the Report. The public’s right to access relevant documents from war crimes trials is limited in practice by the refusal of courts to deliver judgments from proceedings that are not final and by excessive anonymisation of data.  

The report is based on several years of practice of the HLC, that monitors national war crimes trials from the start, obtains relevant court documents and reports about them to the public.

The report “Public’s Right to Know of War Crimes Trials in Serbia” is available here.

(srpski) Poziv na predstavljanje zbornika radova – Analiza aktuelnih pitanja u postupcima za ratne zločine

Sorry, this entry is only available in srpski.

Serge Brammertz Visits HLC

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Mr. Serge Brammertz, visited the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) on October 28th, 2016. On this occasion, he discussed with the representatives of the HLC the achievements in the prosecution of war crimes in Serbia, the cooperation of Serbia with the ICTY, and other endeavours aimed at establishing justice for crimes committed during the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s.

Human Rights Documentation Toolkit Launched

The website Human Rights Documentation (HRD) Toolkit, in the development of which the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) has participated, was launched on October 25, 2016, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. The Human Rights Documentation Toolkit is a multidisciplinary, interactive online portal providing human rights documenters with existing documentation resources and tools, broadly accepted practices, and ongoing support from other documentation stakeholders.

Students’ Visit To HLC

Students from the School for International Training – (SIT) visited the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) on Thursday, September 29^th, 2016. These students go to various universities in the United States, and they are staying in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo as part of the Peace Studies, the programme organized by the Center for Comparative Conflict Studies at the Faculty for Media and Communication.

Council of Europe Concerned for the Position of Civilian Victims of War in Serbia

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights addressed a letter on September 12th, 2016 to the Minister of Labour, Employment, Social and Veterans Affairs in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Mr. Aleksandar Vulin, in which he is seeking information about the measures taken by Serbia in order to fulfil the recommendations on comprehensive and just reparations for civilian victims of war, which the Commissioner expressed in his Report on the visit to Serbia in July 2015.

“Depth Two” awarded Best Balkan Documentary at DokuFest

The winners of 15^th edition of DokuFest were announced at the award ceremony held today at the Lumbardhi Cinema in Prizren, after the jury deliberation. 107 films ran for awards in six competitive categories, as well as the audience award.

The 9-day festival activities included the screening of 238 films representing 57 countries, workshops, panels, debates, masterclasses, exhibitions and a series of live acts under the DokuNights with world stars such as Om†ar Souleyman and Yasmine Hamdan performing. Prizren once again became a city fully immersed in the celebration of cinema and culture.

Balkan Documentary Competition Winner: “Depth Two” by Ognjen Glavonić.

Jury: Eric Hynes, Marek Septimus, Maria Bonsanti

Statement: For a film that we all found to be as cinematically accomplished as it is morally devastating, employing a language to fit its subject that combines audio witness with footage of tragically unpeopled landscapes, putting the viewer in a position of both historical reflection and present outrage, and providing a layered, emotional and intellectual engagement that we won’t soon forget, it is with deep admiration, gratitude and enthusiasm that we award Best Balkan Documentary to DEPTH TWO by Ognjen Glavonic.

“Depth two” video collage

From February until June 2016 over 700 citizens of Serbia and Kosovo saw the documentary film “Depth Two”. The film was aired in Kragujevac, Čačak, Subotica, Pančevo, Belgrade, Novi Pazar, Niš, as well as in Pristina in Kosovo. Every screening was followed by a discussion with the authors, in which victims and their families, civil society activists, students, journalists, artists and other experts from various fields participated. This short video collage highlights some of the discussion moments and messages of citizens of Serbia and Kosovo to their compatriots and representatives of institutions.

The film, a co-production of HLC and Non Aligned Films, premiered at the 66th International film festival in Berlin (Berlinale) in February 2016, and was subsequently shown at festivals in Thessaloniki, Wiesbaden, Belgrade, Novi Sad and London.
It won the Award for Best Film Editing at the Beldocs International documentary film festival in Belgrade, and the Grand Jury Award at the Open City festival in London. In late July 2016 the film won the Critics Award at the Atlántida Film Fest in Spain.
The film is a part of the Batajnica Memorial Initiative, aimed at creating a memorial site for victims found in Batajnica.

Srebrenica: Victims’ 21-years-long search for the truth and its acknowledgement

On the occasion of marking the 21st anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) organized a debate dedicated to the victims of the Srebrenica genocide. The panellists Nidžara Ahmetašević, Ivica Đikić, Florence Hartmann and Dejan Anastasijević discussed before a hall full of people at the Centre for Cultural Decontamination, the responsibility for the killing of several thousands of people in and around Srebrenica during July 1995, and the years’ long struggles of victims of this crime for the truth and its acknowledgement.