U.N. General Assembly to Vote on Srebrenica Genocide Resolution

Srebrenica (BETAPHOTO/HINA/FENA/Almir RAZIC)

On May 23, the United Nations General Assembly will vote on a resolution declaring July 11 the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica and condemning both denial of the genocide and the glorification of war criminals.

The resolution was jointly proposed by Germany and Rwanda and subsequently sponsored by 34 other countries, including the Quint and all former Yugoslav republics except Serbia and Montenegro.

Aside from Germany and Rwanda, the draft resolution lists the following countries as sponsors: Albania, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malesia, the Marshal Islands, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Vanuatu.

The document also cites the verdicts passed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague and the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which have labelled the war crime in Srebrenica a genocide.

The resolution recalls that 2025 will mark the 30th anniversary of the genocide, in which at least 8,372 people were killed in 1995.

It is also emphasized that countries themselves are responsible for putting a stop to genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law going unpunished and that they must prosecute those responsible for such acts to avoid their repetition and achieve sustainable peace, justice, truth and reconciliation.

The final draft of the document includes two amendments proposed by Montenegro, of which the first reiterates that “guilt for the crime of genocide is individualized and cannot be attributed to any ethnic, religious, or other group or community as a whole,” while the second confirms “the inviolability of the general framework agreement for peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina in all its provisions.”