The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Srebrenica Genocide

After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, during the war in Bosnia, in July 1995, at least 8000 Bosnian Muslim men were killed by Bosnian Serb forces with the intent to change the population to create an ethnically homogenous Serb Republic in Bosnia. Set up while the Bosnian war was still in progress, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was established to prosecute those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide occurring in the lands formerly united as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Tribunal brought many to trial, including those responsible for the Srebrenica Genocide. It ceased operating at the end of 2017, however its legacy continues, with cases before the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals as well as domestic courts. The following essay seeks to explore the response of the Tribunal to the Srebrenica Genocide. It begins with a brief outline of the war in Bosnia and the events in and around Srebrenica in July 1995. It then outlines the individuals indicted by the Tribunal for the Srebrenica Genocide – although for many of them, Srebrenica was not the only crime for which they were prosecuted. Finally, it will discuss the response of the Tribunal to the Srebrenica Genocide, touching on the rights of the accused, the inadequacy of justice for the victims, and briefly the response internationally to the Tribunal.