November 17, 20125.
Public appeal to the international organizations for the protection of human rights and freedoms
Raise your voice in defence of the rights of victims of torture and concentration camp survivors in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Although a legal framework exists for the adoption of laws on the rights of victims of torture (Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the UN Convention on war crimes), Bosnia and Herzegovina has yet to implement a legal framework with which to protect the rights of people who have survived numerous concentration camps – even twenty years after the beginning of the war of aggression and genocide against its citizens.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constitution is founded on international conventions which require it to make reparations to victims of torture. This includes, among other things, non-material damages.
The resolutions of the United Nations obligates member states to make this process as painless as possible for the victims, and adapted to their needs to whatever extent possible. After all, they have already suffered greatly. Even today, these people continue to suffer enormous psychological consequences as a result of their wartime experience.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has, in its judgments, established that war crimes, and crimes against humanity, occurred in these camps, and has sentenced those responsible for these crimes.
There is no statute of limitations on war crimes, or crimes against humanity. Likewise, there is no statute of limitations for concentration camp survivors who wish to bring up criminal charges against those who imprisoned and tortured them. However, the Bosnian government has turned a deaf ear towards victims of torture and has done everything it can to systematically make it impossible for victims to attain justice.
There has been a conscious effort to deny concentration camp survivors their rights, and the reason for this appears to be political. The state clearly wants to avoid fulfilling any obligation towards the victims of torture and concentration camps, and so the Bosnian courts take positions that suit the will of the nation’s politicians.
In their judgements, the judicial authorities in the Serbian Entity of Republika Srpska routinely reject the victims’ accusations as being unfounded. Former concentration camp survivors then find themselves in a position where they are then obliged to pay exorbitant legal fees for court proceedings . As a result of this alleged practice, former concentration camp inmates are left feeling re-traumatized – as though they are being made to relive the torture they once experienced.
Given the fact that: 1) there is no statute of limitations on criminal charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity (in particular in the context of concentration camps), and that 2) the state itself bears responsibility for ensuring that justice is attained, and that 3) the Bosnian government still remains silent on the rights of former detainees – we are inviting you to raise your authoritative voice and to protect the victims of torture in concentration camps in the war of aggression and genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina – individuals who are now being re-victimized by their own country.
Congress of North American Bosniaks {CNAB}
Institute for Research of Genocide, Canada {IGC}
