Recent Reports Reinforce Slow Rate of Progress in Balkan Transitional Justice

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Friday, June 21, 2019
Author: 
Alex Psilakis
Volume: 
35
Issue: 
6
Abstract: 

On June 17, 2019, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) issued a new report titled “War Crimes Case Management at the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina.” The report analyzes some of the systemic issues limiting the Prosecutor’s Office in Bosnia (PO BiH), as well as the root causes of those systemic issues. However, it remains somewhat optimistic, offering conclusions and recommendations to Bosnia’s judicial institutions on how to improve their overall capacity to prosecute war crimes. Just weeks before this, in May 2019, the Humanitarian Law Centre – a Serbia-based NGO – released a new report titled “Report on the War Crimes Trials in Serbia.” While their report focuses more so on monitoring specific war crimes cases in Serbia, it offers a number of general findings which discuss why the cases are moving forward in such an inefficient manner. In tandem, these reports reinforce the worrying trend that has plagued the Balkan region for years – internal intransigence has all but prevented states from prosecuting their own war criminals.