Resistance to Memorialization and Judicial Truth: A Measure of Their Power
Resistance to Memorialization and Judicial Truth: A Measure of Their Power

Author(s): Rosa Aloisi, Jayden Salter
Subject(s): Law and Transitional Justice, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Historical revisionism, Politics of History/Memory, Wars in Jugoslavia
Published by: Institut za istraživanje zločina protiv čovječnosti i međunarodnog prava Univerziteta u Sarajevu
Keywords: Memorials; judicial truth; political rhetoric; denial;
Summary/Abstract: On May 23, 2024, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 78/282, designating July 11 as the ‘International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica’ (hereafter the Resolution). Co-sponsored by Germany and Rwanda and supported by over 2,000 organizations, the Resolution constitutes a significant instrument for the institutionalization of historical memory. However, the measure faced significant opposition from Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and the President of the Republika Srpska, Bosnia-Herzegovina’s political entity, Milorad Dodik. These leaders characterized the institutionalized memorialization as a politicized assault on Serbian sovereignty, arguing that such initiatives serve to exacerbate ethnic hostilities and undermine regional stability rather than facilitate reconciliation. This represents a recent instance where the international community’s efforts to utilize memorialization as a tool for reconciliation have been subverted into a political weapon. It also represents one of the many tools of denials and revisionism that are constantly used to rewrite the historical and legal truth established in countless judicial pages and archival testimonies. This contribution suggests that denial is a powerful interconnected net of actions, all contributing to the dismantlement of established legal and historical truth. We plan to systematically analyze some of the legal truth established by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and three different types of denialism that we call “urban,” “literary,” and “political.” Through the assessment of the historical evolution of sites of memorialization, the publications of former convicts, and the statements of leaders, this contribution provides a complex, layered account of denialism and of its dangers.

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