Conference on Hague Legacy Kicks Off

The conference, organised by the Dutch government and the Sanela Diana Jenkins Human Rights Project at University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, aims to open the floor to different actors to talk about the Tribunal's achievements in promoting rule of law, peace and justice in the former Yugoslavia, and also internationally.

The ICTY, established in 1993, is the first international tribunal for war crimes set up after World War II and the Nuremberg trials.

So far 161 people have been prosecuted, including Slobodan Milosevic, the first president of a country who has been prosecuted for war crimes in the front of the ICTY. Milosevic died in his cell in 2006 before a verdict was pronounced.  

The ICTY is the first court to consider verdicts for what is defined as ethnic cleansing, a term now broadly used to describe all forms of ethnically-motivated violence, from murder, rape, and torture to the forcible removal of populations.

It is also the first tribunal to define rape committed during war as a crime against humanity.

According to the present plans, the ICTY should finish its work by 2012. At the moment two remaining indictees are still on the run, general Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic.

During two-day conference, tribunal staff, representatives of non governmental organisations from the region, victim associations, as well as legal specialists from the region and internationally will participate.

Speakers include Judge Patrick Robinson, president of the ICTY, Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor, Pierre Mirel, EU director for the Western Balkans, Navanethem Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Natasa Kandic from the Humanitarian Law Center in Serbia, Mirsad Tokaca from the Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo, Meddzida Kreso, president of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.