About Project

What is the project about?

Since December 2013, the OSCE Mission to Serbia (the OSCE Mission) has been implementing “Support to monitoring of national war crimes trials” project, financed by the European Union. During Phase II, the OSCE Mission will continue to support Serbia in meeting its international obligation to investigate, prosecute and try war crimes perpetrators. It will particularly assist Serbia in strengthening its criminal justice system in order to render accountability for war crimes and in promoting public awareness of the war crimes trials.

Project goals and content

The project will apply close scrutiny to national war crimes trials and assess the output of specialized institutions for war crimes as one of the mechanisms for fulfilling the country’s international obligations to uphold criminal accountability for war crimes. Furthermore, the project will establish a system of training and education in the field of international criminal law, international humanitarian law and case management for judges, prosecutors, their assistants, defense attorneys and police officers working on war crimes cases. Besides, it will raise awareness of the public in Serbia about the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and domestic war crime courts, their findings and the results of their work. It will also work on expanding a network of individuals and activists in Serbia who promote accountability for war crimes and foster the understanding of the Serbian public about these processes.

The project will last for 38 months and its implementation will include:

a) Continuation of monitoring and reporting of the trails by OSCE for three years;

b) Organizing trainings, roundtables and regional peer-to-peer meetings for judges, prosecutors, their assistants, defense attorneys and police officers in the fields of international humanitarian law, international criminal law, criminal procedure, case management and investigative techniques;

c) Holding seminars on transitional justice issues for future decision makers (young politicians, CSOs activists, journalists etc.).

OSCE reports

Findings and analyses of the war crimes trials produced by the OSCE will be regularly communicated to and shared with the judiciary, bar associations, Ministry of Justice, international community, civil society, donor and other interested parties, as agreed by the Project Steering Committee. A policy dialogue will be maintained, with participation of specialized judicial institutions dealing with war crimes cases, MoJ, other relevant ministries and relevant stakeholders from international community and civil society.