Srebrenica, thirty years later: Genocide, transitional justice and the legal legacy of the ICTY in International Law

Abstract

The Srebrenica genocide during the Bosnian war, perpetrated in July 1995 and marking its thirtieth anniversary this year, stands as the gravest crime committed in Europe since the end of the Second World War. In this regard, the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was decisive in consolidating the notion of genocide, as well as in clarifying substantive norms, developing procedural standards, and laying the foundations for the International Criminal Court. This study focuses on the ICTY’s main contributions to international law through its case law on Srebrenica, while also analyzing the insufficiency of criminal justice to achieve social reconciliation in the face of such atrocities. Issues such as minority returns, denialism, competing narratives, the absence of reparations, and the lack of a truth commission have resulted in the persistence of social fragmentation, the absence of a shared memory, and limited interethnic reconciliation. These dimensions are examined with the aim of presenting an overall panorama of transitional justice in Bosnia-Herzegovina thirty years after the massacre.