Bosnian Students to Study Transitional Justice

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, HCHR, in Republika Srpska recently launched an initiative whose aim is to introduce the subject of transitional justice at state universities in Bosnia-Hercegovina, BiH.

Transitional justice generally refers to a range of approaches that countries may use to address past human rights violations, and includes both judicial and non-judicial approaches. Bosnia is the only country in the region which is currently developing a state strategy on transitional justice.

In addition to introducing transitional justice as a course at faculties throughout BiH, there are plans for starting post-graduate studies on the topic as well. A number of local experts are now developing the first textbook for this course, which will be published soon.

At the moment, only one private law school within the University of Travnik has a course on transitional justice as part of its undergraduate and post-graduate studies.

Professor Goran Simic, who teaches the subject at Travnik, said it was important for more faculties in Bosnia to include it in their curriculum.

“This course can teach students about transitional justice in the modern world; its achievements in sentencing war criminals and institutional reforms, as well as the work of various truth commissions,” he said.

Transitional justice is taught at only two universities in Europe, in Germany and Switzerland.

Sarajevo law school professor Zarije Seizovic says that transitional justice is key to reconciliation across the Balkans, which was why introducing the course at state universities is important not only for BiH, but for the region as a whole.

“Young people who are now studying or attending high schools were not even born or were only toddlers when the war started. Because of different narratives of the past events, biased media reporting and conflicting ethnic and national perspectives of the wars in the former Yugoslavia in the Nineties, it is very important that they get an objective view of what happened and learn how to deal with it,” Seizovic said.

Aleksandra Lekic from HCHR in Banja Luka said her organisation has already held several workshops for young people from universities in Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Tuzla and Mostar in order to brief them on transitional justice.

“The feedback we received from students confirmed they were interested in this course and that it should definitely constitute a part of educational system. They realised that Bosnia will have to implement all the transitional justice mechanisms at one point, but has no one who can do that properly,” Letic said.

Students who attended HCHR’s workshops on transitional justice believe a course should be introduced immediately in the BiH educational system.

“Students are not at all familiar with the meaning of the term transitional justice; they have no idea what it is,” said a student from Tuzla, Almira Hasanovic, who took part in the workshop. “When we talk to our friends about it, they found the topic very interesting and all agreed that’s this was a subject that should be taught at schools and universities.”

Damir Muftic, a student from Sarajevo, said it was “very important that students understand what happened during the war and why it happened, so that we can learn from our past mistakes and move forward”.

“We need to work on building a better future for all of us. Getting to know more about transitional justice mechanisms could help us achieve that,” he said.

Mirna Sadikovic is an RFE and IWPR reporter in Sarajevo.