Sarajevo, 20 September 2012
“At a time when there is a desperate need for public outreach programmes from the war crimes trials in BiH, it was important to hear about the innovative and far-reaching work of the ICTY Sarajevo Office,” said Dr Alex Jeffrey, of the University of Cambridge, one of co-organisers of a conference on ‘Public Outreach and Legal Support in Bosnia and Herzegovina’, held in Sarajevo on 20 September 2012. Participants at the conference included representatives of the BiH state judiciary, victims’ associations, NGOs and various international organisations.
Almir Alić of the Tribunal’s Sarajevo office gave a talk on the ICTY Outreach effort across the whole of the former Yugoslavia, explaining that the Outreach programme was at the core of the Tribunal’s relationship with the countries of the region. Almir described how the programme is reaching out to all sections of society, from ordinary citizens and students to politicians and victims, in order to make sure the Tribunal’s voice is both heard and remembered.
The conference–goers were particularly interested to hear about the high school presentations series and the public dialogues held in some of the Bosnian communities most affected by war crimes.
Endeavouring to communicate the work and achievements of a distant judicial institution to the population of the region, the Outreach programme strives to ensure that the victims’ voices resonate not only in the Tribunal’s courtrooms, but across local communities as well, Almir told the assembled delegates.