MIP held lectures for participants of the "We! The Generation of Truth, Cooperation, and Compassion" project

News Item I 5 November 2024

Today, representatives of the Mechanism Information Programme for Affected Communities (MIP) delivered online presentations on the work, legacy, and outreach initiatives of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism) to participants of the project "We! The Generation of Truth, Cooperation, and Compassion." This project, organised by the Student Association "MAAT" with support from UNDP Serbia, gathered students of law, political science, and economics from Serbia and North Macedonia.

MIP researcher Mr. Nemanja Stjepanović led the first session, addressing the significance of the ICTY and Mechanism's legacy for the former Yugoslavia, especially for young people now carrying forward the lessons of a post-war period. He provided an overview of key ICTY and Mechanism cases and landmark judgments, illustrating the role these international courts have played and the lasting impact of their work on international justice, collective memory, and the transitional justice process in the region of the former Yugoslavia. Mr. Stjepanović also highlighted the courts' valuable judicial archives, which contain essential documents and records related to the conflicts of the 1990s. He underscored their importance as a resource for understanding the judicially established facts arising from these proceedings.

In the second session, MIP Coordinator Ms. Rada Pejić-Sremac emphasised the importance of outreach initiatives for international criminal courts and tribunals, noting that the ICTY Outreach Programme was the first of its kind. She highlighted how these efforts aim to foster reconciliation, address complex historical events, and support transitional justice in post-conflict societies. Ms. Pejić-Sremac also shared examples of the ICTY’s and MIP’s outreach projects, directing attendees to valuable resources such as documentary films, online exhibitions, and other materials designed to make judicially established facts about the 1990s conflicts in the former Yugoslavia accessible to the public. She further underscored the MIP's commitment to engaging with young people, emphasising that future dialogues about the past should ideally be grounded in factual understanding.

Participation in the project "We! The Generation of Truth, Cooperation, and Compassion" reflects MIP’s ongoing commitment to support initiatives led by civil society organizations working on transitional justice in the former Yugoslavia. The founding of the Student Association MAAT by the first generation of MIP fellows exemplifies the Program's success in fostering a new generation dedicated to addressing these issues. These fellows, awarded Mechanism fellowships in The Hague after excelling in the Inter-University Video Lecture Programme and an essay-writing competition, have since transformed their experiences into active contributions within the region.

The MIP aims to improve public knowledge and understanding in the former Yugoslavia regarding crimes committed during the conflicts of the 1990s, grounded in the jurisprudence of the ICTY and the Mechanism. MIP’s work is funded by the European Union.