Workshop on searching judicial archives held for journalists from Montenegro

On 15 December 2020, the Mechanism Information Programme for Affected Communities (MIP) held a workshop for a group of journalists from Montenegro on accessing and searching the judicial archives. The workshop was organized by the Montenegrin office of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR). The Mechanism’s representatives presented virtually from The Hague, while the journalists gathered in the YIHR’s recently established Information and Documentation Center in Podgorica, Montenegro.

Mechanism spokesperson Helena Eggleston, along with MIP researcher Nemanja Stjepanović, began the session by providing an overview of the work and major achievements of the ICTY and the Mechanism.

The main portion of the workshop was dedicated to understanding and putting into practice tools and techniques for conducting detailed research into the wealth of information contained in the judicial archives regarding the 1990s conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.

After learning about the resources available to them on the website and court records databases, participants had the opportunity to work through examples and do research on their own.

The aim of the MIP is to improve the knowledge and understanding of citizens and communities in the countries of the former Yugoslavia about the crimes committed during the conflicts of the 1990s, based on ICTY and Mechanism cases. The MIP is generously supported by the European Union and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.