Last week, the ICTY representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Almir Alić, travelled to Tuzla, where he gave a presentation to a group of 37 Medical School students about the ICTY practice in adjudicating genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The presentation focused on the Tribunal’s jurisprudence regarding the crime of genocide. Mr Alić informed the students that the ICTY was the first and only international criminal tribunal to enter convictions for the crime of genocide committed on European territory, for the killing of some 7,000 Bosnian Muslim boys and men in July 1995 in Srebrenica. Students were attentive and active during the presentation, discussing the topic and posing many questions. They were keen to learn more about the legal definition of genocide and how it differs from war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The students had requested this presentation following a lecture by their human rights and democracy teacher, Mr Amir Ahmetović, who stirred up their interest in the Tribunal’s work. Mr Ahmetović took part in the “train-the-trainers” workshop organised as part of the Tribunal’s Youth Outreach Project earlier this year.
After the presentation, Mr Ahmetović called for continuation of this type of cooperation between the Tribunal and high school students throughout the region. The need for such interaction was best illustrated by the comment of one of the attending students, who said: “I sincerely hope that you will continue to educate young people through such presentations, as – although this is an often discussed subject – many people know very little about it.”