THE SECOND DECADE – Analysis of War Crimes Trials in the Period 2014-2024
Early July 2024 marked the passage of twenty years since the establishment of institutions specialized in prosecuting war crimes in Serbia. The second decade of war crimes prosecution was marked by the political relativization of responsibility—both political and criminal—for crimes committed during the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. The dissolution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) following the completion of its mandate, and the state’s shift in focus towards negotiations for European Union (EU) membership, have further pushed the issue of punishing human rights violations from the 1990s to the margins.
The optimism expressed in the Analysis of War Crimes Processing in Serbia from 2004 to 2013, regarding the improvement of institutional performance in this field through the development and consistent implementation of goals set forth in strategic documents, was betrayed. The adopted strategies for dealing with war crimes, both the National and the Prosecutorial ones, exposed the institutions’ lack of preparedness and weakness in taking steps that lead to more effective war crimes prosecution.
Holding those responsible for war crimes accountable, locating the missing, and the political recognition of what happened during the wars remain key issues among the communities that once made up Yugoslavia. Over the past decade, the space for dialogue on these issues has shrunk drastically, as all communities turned toward constructing an ethno-nationalist culture of remembrance and adopting a victimhood perspective focused almost exclusively on victims from their own community, leaving no room for remembering “the other.”
This has been further aggravated by the political relativization of judicially established facts, the revisionist reshaping of the past, and the deliberate withdrawal and isolation of institutions in their communication with the public, as well as media disinterest. War crimes trials are conducted almost exclusively as a formal requirement to meet EU accession demands for the rule of law, in an environment where institutions and bodies responsible for prosecution are increasingly weakened and marginalized.
The Humanitarian Law Center presents to you an analysis of war crimes trials covering the period from January 1, 2014, to November 30, 2024, divided into four sections. The first section presents statistical data on the past decade of war crimes prosecution, often in comparison with the previous ten-year period. The second section highlights key characteristics of this period’s trials. The third and fourth sections provide an overview of changes in the legal framework and strategic documents essential for understanding the political and societal stance toward war crimes trials—practically the only remaining transitional justice mechanism in Serbia.
Finally, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), as the only organization that continuously monitors and analyzes war crimes trials, offers recommendations to state authorities for improving war crimes prosecution, bearing in mind that the next ten years are, in fact, the last ten in which such trials will still be possible.
You can download the analysis at the following link.
