Towards Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes in Serbia – Pre-trial Phase in Cases of War Crimes Session

The second consultative meeting with regard to the Draft Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes was held on Tuesday, October 28th, 2014, in the Library of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC). The meeting was dedicated to the pre-trial phase in cases of war crimes.

The meeting was attended by the judges acting in cases of war crimes, as well as representatives of the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia (OWCP), the Ministry of the Interior, the EU Delegation to Serbia, the OSCE Mission to Serbia, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, non-governmental organisations, legal experts and the representatives of injured parties in war crimes cases.

The participants discussed previous practice and the possibilities of improving the pre-trial phase in cases of war crimes, by establishing criteria for the prioritization of cases, amending the existing legal framework, and improving collaboration between the OWCP and the Ministry of the Interior, as well as improving existing regional cooperation.

The suggestions and opinions of the participants will form the basis of the Draft Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes in Serbia in the period 2015 to 2025, which will be submitted to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Serbia by the end of 2014.