“The failure to fully deal with wartime atrocities and the root causes of conflicts in the 1990s continues to have devastating consequences on respect for human rights, the rule of law and social cohesion in the region”, said Dunja Mijatović, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, on the release of her “Issue Paper” on the state of play of transitional justice efforts in the countries of the former Yugoslavia.
As a reminder, transitional justice – a concept related to so-called “transitional contexts” – is a set of mechanisms aimed at re-establishing justice in one or more States after a deep crisis and serious human rights violations.
As far as the former Yugoslavia is concerned, the Commissioner calls out a “notable backsliding of the processes to deal with the past”, which “coincides with negative human rights trends on hate speech, freedom of assembly, media freedom and civic space, and ultimately threatens hard-won peace”.
She is particularly concerned about the resurgence of ethno-nationalist discourse, the rise in denial of war crimes and the glorification of war criminals, which “hinder” reconciliation and “threaten” peace.
“Divisive and hateful narratives and actions have become a generalised political strategy, including at election times”, she adds.
The Commissioner encourages states in the region to “revive efforts on dealing with the past towards justice and reconciliation through a victim-centred approach, and zero tolerance for the denial of genocide and the incitement of hatred against other ethnic groups”.
Link to the thematic document: https://aeur.eu/f/9r2 (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)