Last ruling of the UN Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

The legal successor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) in The Hague has issued its last ruling. “Now, it is time to systematically evaluate the international court proceedings for the crimes committed in the period from 1991 to 1995, and in 1999,” stated Jasna Causevic, expert on genocide prevention and the Responsibility to Protect at the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP). “It is possible to draw important lessons from the work of the courts, and future tribunals can benefit from this – be it concerning Ukraine or Myanmar. In the long term, it will be necessary to reform the international criminal justice system altogether.”

The Former Yugoslavia Tribunal and the Rwanda Tribunal helped to ensure that the International Criminal Court is responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. So far, however, the ICC is not authorized to prosecute the crime of aggression when it is based on an act of aggression by a state that is not a party to the ICC Statute – as it is the case for the Russian Federation. According to the international law expert Prof. Dr. Claus Kreß from Cologne, this would only be possible if the UN Security Council were to specifically assign such a case to the ICC. However, an international special tribunal could investigate suspected crimes of aggression in a timely manner. For this, the UN General Assembly would have to urge the General Secretary to sign an according contract with Ukraine.

With regard to this aspect, the ICC Statute must be seen as too specific and, thus, as in need of reform – as the ICC would be the ideal institution to investigate crimes of aggression and to help prevent them. Thus, Kreß advocates for the two-pronged approach of establishing an international special tribunal while, at the same time, working on closing the gap in the statute of the ICC. “Germany should acknowledge the advantages of an international special tribunal with regard to the crime of aggression – and take a leading role in the harmonization of the jurisdictional regime for all four crimes in the ICC Statute.” 

In the last ruling on the crimes committed during the Bosnian war in the 1990s, Jovica Stanisic (72) and Franko Simatovic (73) were both sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 2021, the appellate judges had increased the prison sentences imposed in the first instance by three years. The two members of the Serb secret service were found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The presiding judge, Graciela Gatti Santana, spoke of a “milestone”. Serge Brammertz, IRMCT Chief Prosecutor, emphasized that the ruling was evidence that what happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina was not a civil war, but an international conflict.