Across the countries of the former Yugoslavia, the International Day of the Disappeared, 30 August 2026, was marked largely as a matter of protocol. Declarations of concern for all missing persons were not accompanied by joint demands, agreements on cooperation, or access to archival records that states treat as a matter of “national interest”.

The death of Ratko Mladic does not close the chapter on the conflicts of the 1990s, as his trial leaves behind thousands of adjudicated facts and tens of thousands of evidence items that future generations will study, according to Natasa Kandic, founder of the Humanitarian Law Center and a longtime human rights activist. Speaking to N1, Kandic emphasized the enduring weight of the legal record while warning of how Serbian media and political propaganda have distorted public perception among younger populations.

The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) invites students and young professionals to apply for a seminar dedicated to researching war crimes and other serious human rights violations committed during the wars of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia.

The seminar will take place from 24 to 27 September 2026 in Belgrade.

Information about a possible mass grave in the village of Kalludër e Vogël/Mala Kaludra, in the municipality of Zubin Potok, Kosovo, has been publicly available since 7 January 2013, when the Albanian-language daily Zëri published an article containing a statement by a Serb, Ranko Tepavac, about the killing of 23 Albanian civilians and the secret burial of their bodies in the valley of Kalludër e Vogël/Mala Kaludra. He gave the statement to UNMIK investigators and the Kosovo Police on 7 February 2003.

In memory of the victims of the Srebrenica genocide, civil society organizations, foundations, artists, and cultural workers are once again marking 11 July under the slogan People Remember People. Through a series of events taking place in Belgrade and Novi Sad from 9 to 11 July, we invite citizens to honor the dignity of the genocide victims, preserve and share facts and knowledge about them, and, above all, keep alive the memory of the names and lives of the 8,372 people who have been gone.

On 5 June 2026, the War Crimes Department of the Court of Appeals in Belgrade upheld the first-instance judgment in the Vukovar-Proleterska case, sentencing Jovan Radan, a former member of the Serbian Territorial Defence, to seven years’ imprisonment for a war crime against the civilian population – the rape of a woman in Vukovar in October and November 1991.

The Humanitarian Law Center invites you to the presentation of the publication RESOLUTION 808 – Inside the Yugoslavia Tribunal by Jorie Horsthuis and Martino Lombezzi, which will take place on 9 July 2026 at 5:00 pm at Europe House (corner of Knez Mihailova and Zmaj Jovina streets, Belgrade).

The documented facts show that the crime in Dubrava was not the result of wartime chaos, but of the organized actions of state authorities of the Republic of Serbia. The killings of prisoners did not end in Dubrava; they continued after the surviving prisoners had been transferred to other prisons.

The Association Center for Truth, Justice and Remembrance from Prijepolje submitted to the President of the Municipality of Prijepolje, the Municipal Assembly of Prijepolje and the Municipal Council of Prijepolje on May 28, 2026 an initiative to amend and supplement the plaque with the names of victims of the Štrpci abduction of February 27, 1993, within the existing memorial in Prijepolje. The initiative was supported by 17 organizations and individuals from the region.

The decision of the President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals to reject Ratko Mladić’s request seeking provisional or conditional early release on compelling humanitarian grounds represents an important confirmation that even the severe health condition of a person convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes cannot automatically negate the purpose of punishment for the gravest international crimes.

The conducted audit showed that there were no irregularities in the implementation of the project.

The publication A Future through the Past presents discussions from the XVII RECOM Forum, showing that existing transitional justice mechanisms have not led to social change.

The data presented in the exhibition “Massacres in Kosovo 1998–1999” in several instances provide an inaccurate representation of crimes. This is not a matter of interpretation, but of a fundamental lack of knowledge of international humanitarian law, court-established facts, and the proper reading of data from the HLC and HLCK database.

A society that turns sites of suffering into tourist attractions without clear acknowledgment of the crimes committed there accepts the suppression and erasure of violence against women.

The judgment and the prison sentence imposed aginst Jovan Radan will discourage victims of rape from reporting war crimes, and from appearing in the courtroom face to face with the defendant, for whose family situation the judges have shown more understanding than for the trauma and violated dignity of the rape victim.

On 20 November 2025, the War Crimes Department of the Higher Court in Belgrade delivered a first-instance judgment acquitting Milenko Karlica and Željko Novaković of charges of war crimes against the civilian population committed in the hamlets of Alići and Ekići in the village of Maslovare in June 1992.

HLC considers that the sentences of five to ten years in prison are not just, given the gravity of the crime and the responsibility of the defendants, who committed one of the gravest war crimes against Bosniak civilians, citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.