Fifteen Years of Outreach at the ICTY
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OUTR ACH 15 years of Outreach at the ICTY A publication of the Outreach Programme, Registry, ICTY Editor-in-Chief: Giorgia Tortora Managing editor: Rada Pejić-Sremac Editors: Joanna Ellis Adwan and Nenad Golčevski The ICTY Outreach Programme Managing editors for the OTP: Kevin Hughes and Ljiljana Vodenski-Piteša is generously supported by the Graphics editor: Leslie Hondebrink-Hermer European Union. Photographs: ICTY Outreach Programme and Leslie Hondebrink-Hermer Contributors: Almir Alić, Ernesa Ademagić, Giulia Chiara, Steve Coulson, Petar Dubljević, Helena Eggleston, Amy Eussen, Petar Finci, Goran Georgijev, Amanda Molesworth, Thomas Rivière, Ana Cristina Rodríguez Pineda, Catina Tanner, Isabella Tan Hui Huang Proofreading: Joanna Ellis Adwan and Conference and Language Services Section Circulation: 1,000 copies Printed in The Netherlands, 2016 Special thanks go to all Outreach staff, past and present, who made the work of the Outreach Programme possible. The editors are especially grateful to Mr Matias Hellman, former Outreach representative, for providing insights into the early days of the Outreach Programme and his assistance in researching the Programme’s history. Last but not least, the editors would also like to thank the Principals of the Tribunal and their staff for their invaluable support they have been providing to the Programme and their endorsement of this project. This publication makes use of QR codes (Quick Response code) to expand the reading experience. Where available, these will bring you to the related webpage of the article. You will need a Smart Phone app that reads QR Codes. OUTR ACH 15 years of Outreach at the ICTY Table of Contents 1 Foreword by President Carmel Agius 2 Introductory remarks by Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald 4 Foreword by Prosecutor Serge Brammertz 5 Foreword by Registrar John Hocking 7 Donor statement 9 Youth outreach 19 Community outreach 29 Capacity building 37 Media outreach 47 Online outreach 53 Documentary production 59 Office of the Prosecutor and outreach 81 The way forward 85 Annexes OUTR ACH 15 years of Outreach at the ICTY Forewordby President Carmel Agius F26 OUTR ACH 15 years of Outreach at the ICTY President Carmel Agius has been a judge of the ICTY since November 2001. Prior to his appointment as President of the ICTY in November 2015, he served as its Vice-President for four years from November 2011. During his time at the Tribunal, President Agius has sat on and presided over a large number of trial and appeal cases in both the ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). He has also been a judge of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) since 2011. As the last President of the Its contribution to the jurisprudence despite the Tribunal’s geographical capacity building activities for national International Criminal of international criminal law since remoteness from the locations where judiciaries, visits to the ICTY as well Tribunal for the former that time will be regarded as one the atrocities occurred and its use as the production of documentaries, Yugoslavia (ICTY), I have the honour of of its significant achievements. In of languages and procedural rules multimedia websites and social media guiding its closure in 2017. This addition, the Tribunal has played, foreign to the countries of the former outputs. Such activities are concrete mission comes with numerous and continues to play, a pivotal role Yugoslavia, the Outreach Programme demonstrations of the Tribunal’s responsibilities, including that of both in setting global standards for has enabled people in the region efforts to raise awareness of its work consolidating the image of the international criminal law and justice to witness justice being done in and its achievements in the region, Tribunal and the impact of its work, and in supporting the rule of law at The Hague. In this regard, it remains with the ultimate goal of ensuring that with a view to ensuring its strong and the national level. In this respect, crucial for the Tribunal, through the its legacy will endure. I have faith that, long-lasting legacy. To this end, it is critical to the broader success of the Outreach Programme, to continue to through the continued efforts of the fundamental that in the remaining Tribunal is the understanding of its disseminate its findings and to explain Outreach Programme during the final biennium, the Tribunal continues its work by the international community the significance of its achievements to biennium, this goal will be met. commitment to fostering peace and as a whole, and in particular by the the people of the former Yugoslavia security in the former Yugoslavia, to countries in the former Yugoslavia. during the last phase of its existence. ending impunity for the commission of international crimes, and to The Outreach Programme provides It is with particular pride that I preventing their recurrence in the vital assistance in fulfilling this applaud this publication, which region. I, personally, intend to support mission. Being at the heart of the highlights and celebrates the valuable the achievement of these goals with Tribunal’s relationship with the former work undertaken by the Outreach determination until the end of my Yugoslavia, it offers an opportunity to Programme over the past 15 years. It is mandate, as a reflection of my work with the communities in the a publication which shows how, every longstanding commitment to region and reflect on the Tribunal’s year, thousands of people from the international criminal justice. achievements. By communicating former Yugoslavia come into contact directly with the people of the region, with the Tribunal through a variety of The creation of the Tribunal in 1993 through its numerous projects and activities organised by the Outreach heralded a new-found willingness of activities, the Outreach Programme Programme. These have included the international community to bring makes the Tribunal’s trials, appeals grassroots projects with regional to justice perpetrators of war crimes and judgements easily accessible to all communities and the local media, and gross violations of human rights. levels of the population. As a result, youth projects such as visits to schools, OUTR ACH 1 15 years of Outreach at the ICTY Introductory remarks by Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald A few months after I was the camps, who were subjected to accused persons only after fair trials by organizing the conference, with elected President of the inhumane living conditions, and often and, thereby, ending the cycle of funding from the United States Tribunal in November 1997, beaten, raped and killed. impunity that had resulted in distrust, Institute of Peace. Fourteen leading reporters who had just returned from and retaliation. judges, prosecutors and defense the Prijedor region told me that many I felt as if all our work, as well as that counsel from the former Yugoslavia people did not credit the Tribunal’s of the supporting court personnel Initially, the Tribunal faced many observed trials and met with senior findings in the Tadić Judgment - interpreters, clerks, guards, audio- challenges. It was established while members of the Tribunal’s three regarding the commission of brutal visual operators - had been in vain. the conflict was ongoing and was organs: Chambers (the President crimes against persons forcibly held in Most importantly, I feared we had located hundreds of miles away from and Judges); Office of the Prosecutor the Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje failed the people from the region, the region where the crimes had been (including the Investigations section) camps in the former Yugoslavia. who were willing to put themselves committed. It followed a system of law and the Registry (including the Victim Rather, they believed that these were and their families in jeopardy to very different than that in the former and Witness Protection section, and ‘collection centers’ where persons testify in trials that were broadcast Yugoslavia, and, for the most part, the Press Office). We were fortunate were temporarily housed, at their own back home. At that very moment, except for the interpreters, was staffed enough to also have in attendance request, while waiting to voluntarily I realized that the Tribunal must almost solely by persons who were Ian Martin, the Deputy High leave the area. In fact the Judges actively work to dispel the myths, not from the region. Yet, one difficulty Representative for Human Rights in the received no credible evidence that the rumors and misunderstandings about was especially acute - the prevalence Office of the High Representative for detention was voluntary. I had been it and its processes, and it was not of misunderstandings and absolute Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). These the Presiding Judge of the Trial enough to hold trials in The Hague falsehoods about the Tribunal. dedicated lawyers and jurists came Chamber that conducted this first trial and hope that truth and justice from a wide range of backgrounds and at the ICTY. For 79 days, over a 6-month would magically trickle down to the Given this environment, it was political beliefs; some came already period, Judges Ninian Stephen, Lal people for whose benefit, after all, essential that the Tribunal actively supportive of the Tribunal, but others Vohrah and I had heard from 125 the Tribunal was created. work to bring its message and the were clearly skeptical, at the least. witnesses from the Prosecution and facts about its work to the people of the Defense, resulting in a transcript I was firm in my belief that the the region. To this end, the Tribunal We hoped that this opportunity of some 7,000 pages, with 472 Tribunal was not an intellectual held the ICTY Outreach Symposium for a first-hand view would help to exhibits. What we heard from witness exercise designed to court academics; from 14-17 October 1998 in dispel some of the myths, rumors after witness was that a campaign of rather, it was about bringing justice to The Hague.