Pristina, 4 November 2014
Emiliya Viktorova, Legal Officer in the MICT Appeals Chamber addressed today 25 law students and professors from “Juridica” College in Pristina, Kosovo on the ICTY practice in adjudicating war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Emiliya gave students some background information about the Tribunal’s work spanning the past two decades and explained how the ICTY had arrived at such ground breaking jurisprudence. Furthermore, she talked about the basic elements of the three categories of crimes under the Tribunal’s jurisdiction. She then presented specific examples from the case law in relation to the crimes of unlawful attacks against civilians, torture, persecutions through sexual assault, and genocide. Emiliya also provided the students and professors with a detailed explanation of some of the ICTY judgements specifically related to the crimes committed during the conflict in Kosovo.
Following the lecture, students asked questions and initiated debates over issues they were most interested in. They wanted to know why the number of individuals convicted by the Tribunal is not higher and discussed in more detail whether the work of the Tribunal could be considered successful.