International Criminal Justice and Social Healing after Srebrenica: Reflections from Collective Memory
International Criminal Justice and Social Healing after Srebrenica: Reflections from Collective Memory

Summary/Abstract: In the aftermath of the Srebrenica genocide, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) played a pivotal role in the development of international criminal law, delivering landmark judgments and establishing individual criminal responsibility for atrocity crimes. These judicial processes addressed cer-tain demands for accountability and, for some victims, contributed to a sense of justice. Yet legal adjudication was only one dimension of the post-genocide land-scape. This paper examines the relationship between international criminal justice and community-led healing processes in post-Srebrenica Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). While the ICTY pursued accountability through formal legal mechanisms, affected communities simultaneously developed their own practices of remembrance, mourning, and social repair, often outside institutional frameworks. Drawing on the Srebrenica case, the paper asks how these parallel processes have been positioned within collective memory, and which forms of justice and healing have occupied a more sustained role in shaping post-genocide social recovery. The pa-per argues that while ICTY judgments were crucial in establishing legal truth and combating denial, they were not sufficient to address the broader needs of social healing. Grassroots initiatives, commemorative practices, and everyday acts of remembrance played a more sustained role in shaping how justice and reconciliation were experienced at the societal level. By comparing international criminal adjudication with local healing practices, the paper highlights the limits of legal justice and underscores the importance of community-driven processes in post-genocide societal reconciliation.

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