Tribunal reaches out to high school students across the former Yugoslavia

Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document)

The Tribunal’s Outreach Programme launches today a region-wide effort to reach out to young people at high schools in the former Yugoslavia. Through a series of multi-media presentations, the Tribunal is seeking to support the process of reconciliation in the region by encouraging young people to take an active interest in issues of justice, transitional justice mechanisms, post-conflict social recovery and the ICTY’s mission.

The presentations will introduce high school students to the work of the Tribunal and its achievements in bringing to justice those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. The students will also learn about the Tribunal’s contribution to the establishment of facts concerning war crimes committed in their countries and post-conflict justice in their region.

A presentation today at the 1st Gymnasium in Sarajevo will mark the beginning of the series in Bosnia and Herzegovina which, with the backing of the relevant ministries of education, will comprise presentations at 15 high schools during the winter and spring terms of this academic year.  Presentations will follow at high schools in Kosovo this winter term and it is hoped that arrangements will be finalised to enable the roll-out of the project in Serbia and Croatia this academic year. In tandem, the Outreach Programme will also organise lectures and workshops with ICTY representatives in universities across the region.   

As the ICTY moves towards the completion of its mandate, the Outreach Programme is intensifying its efforts to increase the access of local communities to information on the Tribunal’s achievements. In doing so, the Outreach Programme seeks to promote a greater understanding of the Tribunal’s work and to cement its legacy throughout the region of the former Yugoslavia.

The Outreach Programme benefits from the continuous support of the European Union and its work with young people is generously supported by the Finnish government.

More information about the Outreach Programme can be found on the Tribunal’s website.
                                                         

If you would like to support or get involved in the Tribunal’s Outreach Programme
please contact Nerma Jelačić, Head of Outreach, at jelacic [at] un.org or +31 70 512 5066

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International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
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