The Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian version of the ICTY Outreach Programme’s latest documentary, Never justified: ICTY and the crime of torture, had its first public screening today at the “WARM Festival” in Sarajevo. The annual festival, organised by the “WARM” Foundation, is dedicated to war reporting, art and memorialisation, bringing together journalists, artists, historians, researchers, and activists who, according to the Foundation's mission, have “a common passion for 'telling the story with excellence and integrity'”.
Never justified: ICTY and the crime of torture provides an overview of the Tribunal’s work in adjudicating crimes of torture and cruel treatment and its important contribution to defining these crimes in the context of war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is the seventh feature-length documentary produced by the ICTY’s Outreach Programme, as part of its efforts to bring the work and achievements of the Tribunal closer to audiences in the former Yugoslavia and around the world.
The screening was attended by more than 50 activists, academics and journalists and followed by a discussion with the film maker Petar Finci, which largely focused on how the vast legacy of the Tribunal can be used to further transitional justice processes. Veteran journalist Roy Gutman, a Pulitzer Prize winner and reporter during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, asked about the intended audience for Outreach-produced films. Finci emphasised that these films were primarily produced for use in classrooms in the former Yugoslavia as well as internationally, but that they also have a life of their own online, where they have been seen by tens of thousands of viewers. Tanya Domi, from Columbia University in New York, commented that she regularly used Outreach-produced films in lectures to her students, as they offered a glimpse of the human story behind the Tribunal’s indictments and judgements.
The ICTY Outreach Programme is generously supported by the European Union.