Call for Papers: ICTY Legacy Conference

As part of its “ICTY Legacy Dialogues” events, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (“ICTY”) is organising in the week of 19 June 2017 a conference on the legacy of the ICTY in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina. We invite your participation.

With the ICTY’s closure scheduled for 31 December 2017, the conference aims to enable others to build on the achievements of the ICTY over its 24 year history. The vision is for a series of dynamic dialogues with actors who can take what the ICTY has developed into new areas, with a particular focus on the role of national actors. The conference will explore how the work of the ICTY can inform responses to atrocities and international crimes at a national level in a number of fields.

Examples of topics to be addressed include:

• Institutional and Administrative Legacy – e.g. Witness protection and support – post testimony support: needs and resources; reparations and victim status; gender sensitive witness support.
• Normative Legacy – Synergies, cross-fertilization, and discrepancies between the jurisprudence of the ICTY, national jurisdictions, regional courts, and other international courts and tribunals; with a special focus on: how ICTY jurisprudence has influenced national jurisdictions, for instance in the region of the former Yugoslavia; and how domestic law and jurisprudence has informed international justice.
• Operational Legacy/Complementarity – Challenges faced by the Office of the Prosecutor in investigating and prosecuting conflict-related crimes, including challenges in building leadership cases and obtaining access to evidence; OTP’s capacity building challenges and outcomes; perspectives on operational challenges facing national jurisdictions and potential/demonstrated solutions (including through lessons learned and applied from OTP’s experience).
• Legacy on Access to Justice for Women – The evolution of jurisprudence on conflict-related sexual violence; participation of women in the justice process; working with NGOs and civil society to identify witnesses; protection of sensitive witnesses/victims; compensation mechanisms for sexual violence victims in national jurisdictions.
• Participatory Legacy – Defence in international criminal trials at international and national courts; defence investigations; defence organizations and offices; rights of the accused.
• Historic Legacies – Historic value of the extensive records of the ICTY; records as a means of combating denial; access to ICTY records and archives in the region; importance of user friendly information sharing and judicial databases.
• Non-Judicial Legacy – The ICTY and its limitations; to what extent can a judicial institution contribute to peace and reconciliation; how to fill the gap through non-judicial mechanisms; the importance of memorialisation and the consolidation of the rule of law through capacity building.
• Leaving a Legacy: Outreach Activities – What should be the scope and goals of outreach on the ICTY legacy after the closure of the Tribunal; what are the needs of local communities in respect of the ICTY’s legacy; what are the responsibilities of different societal actors – e.g. politicians, journalists, the legal community, civil society?

Those interested in presenting a paper at the conference should submit an application via email to the ICTY Legacy Committee at: ictylegacypapers@un.org

Applications must include:

1. A 300-word abstract of the proposed paper;
2. The author’s name, title, and affiliation (if any);
3. The author’s curriculum vitae/résumé; and
4. The author’s contact details including phone number and email address.

All applications must be received no later than 15 December 2016.

Successful applicants will receive by approximately 15 January 2017 an invitation to submit a full paper, and first drafts of papers will be expected to be submitted by 15 April 2017. Submission of an application will be considered as acknowledgement that the author is available to be in Sarajevo (or other regional access point) in June 2017 to participate in the conference. Subject to securing sufficient funding, the ICTY will endeavour to cover travel and/or accommodation costs of successful applicants.