Demir Mahmutcehajic looks at the standards set by the Nuremberg Trials and asks how far they have been implemented at the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. This report was prepared for the UN Fourth World Conference Against Racism, held in South Africa in August, 2001.
Download the report here.
The Nuremberg trials were held to prosecute Nazi leaders for their role in the systematic murder of millions of people and for planning and carrying out war in Europe. The trials were held in a model way and set a precedent for international enforcement of justice. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was established to bring to justice individuals who organized and perpetrated war crimes in former Yugoslavia, but it did not deal with collective responsibility. The trials’ verdicts can be used to give moral ground to various groups for their causes, and this is why defining crimes as individual responsibility is essential to prevent individuals from achieving the same moral ground as whole countries.
This essay has been used in a lesson plan for schools for students in the age brackets 13+ and 16+
