2008 | 2008 Bosnian National War Crimes Strategy, December 2008

The Bosnian National War Crimes Strategy of 2008 is not a binding legal instrument, nor does it deal explicitly with the question of reparations. It nevertheless represents a landmark in the troubled history of war crimes processing in Bosnia and Herzegovina and has been referred to by every commentator on the subject since its publication in 2008 (see our articles and reports post-dating 2008 in this section). The Strategy was an attempt by the Ministry of Justice of BiH to come up with a systematic approach for resolving a large number of war crimes cases.

Section 1.1 - The Rationale for the Strategy - provides a concise summary of the serious problems thwarting the effort to provide consistent and timely justice to victims of war crimes committed in former Yugoslavia. The whole document is seen as a clear demonstration of the will of the Bosnian authorities to acknowledge the deficiencies in war crimes processing to date and to advance the processing of war crimes in every way possible.