On 16 April 2015, the OSCE and EU awarded certificates to twelve members of three Serbian CSO/OCDs (Belgrade Center for Human Rights, Humanitarian Law Center and YUCOM) for successfully completing a 23-day training curriculum on war crimes trials monitoring. The training was a key activity of the EU-funded project Support to monitoring of national war crimes trials, which the OSCE is implementing.
In the course of the training, experts and practitioners provided the participants with hands-on knowledge of criminal investigations and trials, international humanitarian law, fair trial rights, victim’s rights, trial monitoring principles and advocacy.
In the upcoming project phase, the Mission will provide five CSO/OCD with guidance and coaching in monitoring of war crimes proceedings in Serbia.
These members of Serbian civil society are now better prepared to professionally and impartially monitor and assess developments in war crimes investigations and trials.
Project background:
War crimes investigations and trials are a crucial area where Serbia needs to show progress in light of the EU accession process. Under “war crimes” the EU screening Report on Chapter 23 has provided a number of recommendations (ensuring that all allegations are properly investigated and subsequently prosecuted and tried, ensuring proportionality of sentences and ensuring equal treatment of suspects, including in cases of high level officers allegedly involved in war crimes; stepping up security of witnesses and informants; improving witness and informant support services; better ensuring the confidentiality of the investigation including witness and informant testimonies) that are part of an overall goal to deliver justice to the victims and overall contribute to restoring peace and reconciliation between the affected communities.
The 3-year project aims at strengthening the needs of national institutions, responsible to process war crimes, to ensure adequate participation of the civil society sector, inter alia by building a sustainable national war crimes trial monitoring mechanism.
