Victims, civil society and transitional justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Temida

关键词: victims;    transitional justice;    civil society;    human rights;    Bosnia and Herzegovina;   

DOI  :  10.2298/TEM1201059H

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The role of victim organizations in the transitional justice process isexamined in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). These organizations emergedin the context of the top-down accountability agenda driven by theinternational crisis intervention in the Balkan wars and the InternationalCriminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). By contrast, in LatinAmerica victim organizations emerged as a self-conscious movements ofindividuals galvanized by their traumatic experience of state repression anddemanding accountability from the bottom-up. In BiH accountability became acondition for re-establishing state political and legal authority but alsointernational financing for reconstruction and progress towards EU accession.Victim organizations were part of the NGO sector which grew rapidly inresponse to the neoliberal governance model of selforganizing civil societyto transform post-socialist and postwar BiH. Non-governmental organizations(NGOs), run largely by professional middle class displaced from careers inthe downsized state bureaucracy, became intermediaries between externaldonors and war affected populations. Victim organizations participated in thetransitional justice process by supporting victims/witnesses in internationaland national prosecutions, tracing the missing persons and supporting theright of return of displaced populations. In BiH, victims’ organizations didnot emerge as social movements advocating for citizenship and social justice,but became incorporated in the neoliberal governance model, sponsored byinternational agendas for stabilization, democratization and EU accession.

【 授权许可】

Unknown