Seminar on Transitional Justice Held in Novi Pazar

The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) and the Sandžak Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms organized a seminar titled Transitional Justice – Basic Mechanisms, Challenges and Problems on June 18th in Novi Pazar. Approximately 40 participants, representatives of non-governmental organizations, associations of victims and ethnically cleansed citizens of the Priboj municipality, student associations, local media and individuals, attended the seminar.

Semiha Kačar, the president of the Sandžak Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, opened the seminar with the following words: education of civil society representatives about the basic principles of transitional justice is one of the main prerequisites for initiating a process of dealing with mass violations of human rights committed against Bosniaks in Sandžak during 1990s.

“Learning about the experiences of other societies that went through periods of massive human rights violations will help us to find solutions for society in Serbia and the Sandžak region. The state has ignored human rights violations committed in Sandžak during the 1990s and victims remain disempowered and weak’ said Sandra Orlović, HLC Deputy Executive Director.

Participants of seminar in Novi Pazar
During the working session of the seminar, Marijana Toma, the programme coordinator of the international Impunity Watch, gave two lectures on transitional justice: mechanisms, principles and challenges of transitional justice, and the role of the civil society in truth-seeking initiatives and initiatives for truth commissions. The seminar organizers screened the film Confronting the Truth: Truth Commissions and Societies in Transition at the end of the seminar.

The seminar is part of activities within the project titled: Assisting civil society to develop greater cohesion in working on human rights in general and transitional justice in particular, which is sponsored by the European Commission delegation in Serbia and which aims to strengthen a network of non-governmental organizations in Sandžak to advocate for systematic compensations of citizens of villages in the Priboj Municipality who were ethnically cleansed from their homes between 1992 and 1995 by members of the Yugoslav Army, after which their property was looted and destroyed.

The content of this press release is the sole responsibility of the Humanitarian Law Center and the Sandžak Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.