A Voice For the Voiceless

The Advocacy Project helps marginalized communities to tell their story, claim their rights and produce social change. We recruit graduate students to volunteer as Peace Fellows with partners.

The Impact of Service



"Speaking with locals and living in a country is the best way to learn about the real lives of citizens, not just the stories in the mainstream media. I will be more critical of what I read as a result of this experience. I also feel even more grateful for my education, and I feel a stronger responsibility to assist others who do not have resources or access to opportunities in their communities."

Maria Skouras (New York University) volunteered in 2011 as a Peace Fellow for eHomemakers in Malaysia.

For more 2011 feedback click here.

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Partner Campaigns > Survivors of the ... > Challenge > Justice

Justice

There are many arguments for justice. The survivors of the Srebrenica massacre naturally demand that the killers be brought to justice. The displaced are alarmed at the thought of returning to their homes in Srebrenica and encountering Serbs who might have killed their loved ones. There is another important argument in favor of prosecutions: punishing the guilty would remove the miasma of collective guilt that now hangs over Serbs living in the Srebrenica region.

Justice has been left to the International Criminal Tribunal, created by a resolution of the UN Security Council in May 1993. The Tribunal has indicted 161 persons and sentenced 61. They include Radislav Krstic who commanded the Drina Corps of the Bosnian Serb Army, which organized the Srebrenica massacre (pictured below at the Tribunal). AP’s Iain Guest reported on the trial on Vidoje Blagejovic, one of Krstic’s senior aides, from The Hague in 2004.

A number of survivors have been allowed to testify before the Tribunal, and see those responsible for the

     Radovan Karadzic (above left) and Ratko Mladic (above right) are largely
     responsible for the Srebenica massacre

  In the dock: Radislav Krstic, commander
  of the Drina Corps.		 murder of their loved ones sentenced. However, Ratko Mladić, the commander of the Bosnian Serb troops responsible for the Srebrenica massacre, remains at large presumably in Serbia. The Tribunal lacks the power to arrest and must rely on local authorities, peacekeeping forces, and national governments to arrest or extradite the indicted.

The tribunal’s location in The Hague, the Netherlands – a long way from Bosnia – has reduced the value of its proceedings for the survivors of Srebrenica. Another problem is the tribunal’s focus on high-profile trials. As a result, hundreds or perhaps thousands of those who assisted in the deportations and mass executions of 1995 have not even been indicted, let alone arrested. While the survivors support the trials at The Hague, they are discouraged from returning to their homes by the presence of “small-time” war criminals who are still part of the separatist power structure in Srebrenica.

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