The Working Group for Bosnia and Herzegovina has sent a letter to the President of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, calling him to bring the Resoluion on Srebrenica to a vote. You can read the entire letter below:
“We are writing to urge you to work with the sponsors of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution designating July 11 as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica in order to bring the Resolution to a vote. UN Member States should have the opportunity to show their support for the Srebrenica Genocide Resolution as they were able to designate 27 January as Holocaust Remembrance Day and as they were able to designate 7 April as the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The establishment of an International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica will honor the memory of the victims as it affirms the truth about the genocide that has been documented by the ICTY and ICJ judgments. Based as it is on the legal judgments, the Resolution seeks to restore respect for the rule of law. The restoration of respect for the rule of law is imperative for the achievement of justice and lasting peace in a post-genocide society.
The Resolution nurtures a culture of remembrance in order to prevent a repetition of the atrocities. Indeed, a report to the UN Human Rights Council in October 2020 emphasized that “Without memory, the rights to truth and justice cannot be fully realized and there can be no guarantees of non-recurrence.” The report insisted that memorialization is crucial for promoting the “development of a culture of democracy and respect for human rights.”
The Resolution encourages the development of educational programs to raise awareness about the Srebrenica Genocide in order to resist denial and prevent future genocides. This condemnation of denial is crucial since genocide denial trivializes the crime that was committed against the targeted group and renders them vulnerable to a repetition of the atrocities.
Your excellency, your support to allow for a vote would be crucial in order to counter the negative lobbying efforts being aggressively pursued by the Republic of Serbia and the Russian Federation. The Russian and Serbian positions reject the judgments of the ICTY and ICJ. Without respect for legal judgments and for the rule of law our democratic civilization would be at risk, as Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has shown.
The Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations feigns concern for the stability of the region and for reconciliation. But their office has worked relentlessly to destabilize Bosnia and the region in order to prevent Bosnia’s Euro-Atlantic integration. The Russian Federation’s Embassy in Sarajevo has insisted that Bosnia is composed of entities and is not a single state. A spokesperson for the Russian Federation has warned that it would regard any move by Bosnia toward NATO as a hostile act to which it would have to respond.
Hence, when Russia speaks of reconciliation, their position is duplicitous and wholly devoid of merit. Russia’s opposition to this Resolution is just one more example of its goal to undermine the stability of the region.
Your excellency, your support for this Resolution will make a profoundly important contribution to honoring the memory of the victims and affirming the truth about the genocide. The approval of this historic Resolution would support the rule of law, nurture a culture of remembrance, and support reconciliation and enduring peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region.”
The letter was signed by David Pettigrew, Patrick McCarthy, Vildana Bijedic, Akif Cogo, Azem Dervisevic, Leila Duric and Djenita Pasic.
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