Panel VII on Historical Legacy from the ICTY's Final Legacy Conference in Sarajevo from 22-24 June 2017, a conference reflecting on the legacy of the ICTY and how others can build upon its achievement.
The aim of this panel was to facilitate an expert discussion on the long-term historic legacy of the ICTY, starting with the Tribunal’s role in the creation of an historical record through the establishment of crucial facts about crimes. In addition, the ICTY will leave extensive records and archives as part of its legacy, including not only its judgements and decisions, but also transcripts of witness testimony and video-recordings of court hearings, exhibits, and other documents of great historic value. These records and archives will provide an important account of the events that took place during the conflicts of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia and will constitute an extremely valuable source of information both for people in this region and elsewhere. The panel covered topics including: (i) How the ICTY’s work has contributed to the establishment of facts about historical events; (ii) Use of records and archives in justice, advocacy and reconciliation work in the countries of the former Yugoslavia; (iii) The contribution of information centres towards effective long-term access to the ICTY’s records and archives; (iv) The ICTY as the first international Tribunal with an audiovisual collection of its proceedings (including an audio channel in B/C/S).
Panel VII was moderated by Carsten Stahn, Professor of International Criminal Law and Global Justice at Leiden Law School, as well as Programme Director of the Grotius Centre; and speakers included Harmen van der Wilt, Professor of International Criminal Law at the University of Amsterdam; Thijs B. Bouwknegt, Researcher at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and Assistant Professor in Genocide Studies at the University of Amsterdam; Iva Vukušić, former Journalist specializing in ICTY trials and current PhD Candidate at the History Department of Utrecht University; and Andy Aydın-Aitchison, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, School of Law, University of Edinburgh.
