The Outreach Programme of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) recently completed the third phase of its high school and university presentations on the Tribunal’s mandate and achievements, which involved a total of 2,332 students across the region of the former Yugoslavia. The Outreach Youth Project is part of the ICTY’s continued efforts to reach out to young generations across the region and provide information about the Tribunal’s work as well as wider issues of transitional justice and post-conflict recovery.

Starting in December 2013 the ICTY Outreach Programme visited 26 high schools and delivered 24 university lectures across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, the former Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo. Young people had the opportunity to speak to Tribunal staff and watch multimedia presentations featuring videos of witnesses’ testimonies and exhibits from court proceedings.

In addition, a ‘training the trainers’ programme was launched for teachers in five Sarajevo high schools to enable them to continue discussing the work of the Tribunal in their schools.

As many as 8,000 students from across the region have benefited from the Youth Outreach Project, which was launched in December 2011.

The Outreach Programme benefits from the support of the European Union, and its work with the youth of the former Yugoslavia is generously supported by the Finnish government.