► Latest Outreach Activities

Maintaining close contact and an open dialogue with communities in the territories of the former Yugoslavia is a key part of the Tribunal’s partnership with the people most affected by the crimes under its jurisdiction. The Tribunal takes part in hundreds of public events every year and facilitates numerous visits between The Hague and the former Yugoslavia.

In cooperation with partner organisations, the ICTY Outreach Programme plans, organises and participates in conferences, roundtables and training seminars across the former Yugoslavia. Such events may be directed at victim groups and the local communities, like the land-mark conferences “Bridging the Gap between the ICTY and Communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, or they can be events specifically crafted for legal professionals, students or journalists.

These events allow ICTY staff to present information about the Tribunal’s work directly to those most affected by it. They also enable interlocutors from the former Yugoslavia to relay their perceptions of the Tribunal’s work to ICTY representatives, improving their understanding of the impact of the ICTY’s trials and judgements.

ICTY Outreach also facilitates visits by individuals and groups to the ICTY in The Hague. Visitors have a chance to follow court proceedings, to tour the Tribunal’s courtrooms, and presentations by court staff, prosecutors or defence lawyers can be arranged. Experiencing the Tribunal first hand often makes all the difference in creating a realistic and accurate view of the Court’s work.

Senior staff at the Tribunal regularly travel to the region and often use the opportunity to speak at public events, to meet with civil society representatives and to receive and update on the capacity building of the local judiciary.

If you are interested in any aspect of Outreach events and visits, please contact one of the Outreach offices or send an e-mail to outreach@icty.org

“Bridging the Gap”

During 2004 and 2005, Outreach conducted a series of landmark conferences titled “Bridging the Gap Between the ICTY and Communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina”. Senior ICTY staff travelled to Bosnia and Herzegovina to explain the Tribunal’s cases to the local population in places where some of the most notorious crimes under the Tribunal’s jurisdiction were committed. These conferences took place in Brčko, Foča, Konjic, Prijedor and Srebrenica.

The audiences comprised members of victims’ associations, municipal authorities, judicial institutions and law enforcement agencies, as well as local politicians and civil society representatives. Making extensive use of various evidence presented in the cases, representatives from the Tribunal were able to give an insight into the meticulous and painstaking investigations conducted by the Tribunal and explain how the crimes and the responsibility of the perpetrators were proven beyond reasonable doubt before the court.

Reactions of the audience highlighted the need to persist with efforts to bring to justice perpetrators of all crimes, regardless of the nationality of the victims or the perpetrators. ICTY representatives reiterated the Tribunal’s preparedness to continue to do all it can to assist domestic authorities in bringing further prosecutions.

CD-Roms were produced for each conference for distribution to participants. Each CD contains an overview of the cases (case information sheets, indictments,judgements etc.), photographs presented as evidence in court and a selection of witness testimony from court.