The UN General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution last week establishing a commemoration day for the 1995 killings of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in Srebrenica and to formally recognize the event as genocide. Proposed by Germany and Rwanda, two countries with a unique history dealing with genocide in the 20th century, and [...]
Search Results for: bosnia war
The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution designating July 11 as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide in 1995. The resolution was adopted by a recorded vote of 84 in favor, 19 against, and 68 abstentions. It designates July 11 as the “International Day of Reflection and Commemoration [...]
UN Resolution Seeks to Recognise Bosnian Genocide and Close the Darkest Chapter in Bosnian History
In recognition of the grave events that unfolded in Srebrenica in 1995, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday held a briefing on a resolution that calls for the acknowledgment of the genocide that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the dedication of July 11th as The International Day of Reflection and Remembrance [...]
Explainer Part II: The Israel-Hamas War and the International Court of Justice
The ongoing conflict engulfing Israel and Palestine continues to raise significant issues of international law and policy. My earlier contribution focused on the jurisdiction and substantive law of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Here I address the ongoing litigation before the International Court of Justice (ICJ or Court). Because the crime of genocide can be [...]
Explainer: The Israel-Hamas War and the International Criminal Court
The current conflict engulfing Israel and Palestine raises significant issues of international law and policy. This is part one in an anticipated two-part series that will discuss some of the relevant legal questions before the International Criminal Court (ICC; Part I) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ; Part II). With both courts located in [...]
Germany among 7 countries with downgraded civic space ratings in CIVICUS Monitor report
Germany’s civic space was rated as “narrow” in a new report from global rights watchdog CIVICUS Monitor. Germany was one of seven countries downgraded in the People Under Attack 2023 report, which analysed how governments protect citizens’ freedom of expression in 198 countries. The report found that over 30 percent of the world’s population now [...]
Whether international law has the capacity to establish the rule of law is a question one may well ask today as the world witnesses crimes against humanity committed in Israel against entire families, including babies, their siblings, parents and grandparents, and as Ukraine has entered a second year of fighting Russia’s invasion of its land, [...]
US sanctions Bosnia and Herzegovina officials for violating peace agreement
The US announced on Monday it sanctioned four officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina for actions it says undermines the Dayton Peace Agreement. This comes after the Republika Srpska National Assembly (RSNA) passed a law saying decisions from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constitutional court were null in the Republika Srpska, one of the two states that makes [...]
UN judges expand war crime convictions of former Serbian security officials
The UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) on Wednesday expanded the convictions and increased the sentences of two individuals who helped to murder and deport non-Serbs during the Balkan wars. The two, Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović, are former Serbian security officials. The IRMCT’s Appeals Chamber dismissed the men’s appeals of their convictions [...]
The former supervisor of an infamous Bosnian prison camp during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s was arrested in the Boston area this week on charges of fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship by making false claims of persecution. Kemal Mrndzic, now a resident of the Boston suburb of Swampscott, is accused by US prosecutors of having [...]