1993
ICTY established
UN Security Council creates the first international war-crimes tribunal since Nuremberg to prosecute crimes in the former Yugoslavia.
Accountability before the law
International courts have established, beyond reasonable doubt, that the crimes committed at Srebrenica in July 1995 constituted genocide. This page records those findings.
Findings that cannot be erased
After the fall of Srebrenica, the pursuit of justice became a matter of international law. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), established by the United Nations Security Council in 1993, investigated, prosecuted, and judged those most responsible for the crimes of the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia.
In successive judgments — most notably the Appeals Chamber ruling in Prosecutor v. Krstić (2004) — the ICTY held that the systematic murder of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in July 1995 was genocide. The International Court of Justice reached the same conclusion in 2007. Convictions of political and military leaders followed, including life sentences for Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić.
Justice for the perpetrators does not erase the United Nations’ own failure to protect the safe area. The Secretary-General’s 1999 report on the fall of Srebrenica (A/54/549) records that the enclave was left demilitarized and undefended, that requested air support was denied or came too late, that Dutchbat was outgunned and stood aside, and that VRS forces met no effective resistance. Secretary-General Kofi Annan admitted that the tragedy “will haunt our history forever.” The court judgments that followed establish the crime; the UN report establishes the broken promise that preceded it.
The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) continues residual work of the ICTY. Denial of the genocide remains a living harm; the court record stands as an answer.
Established by international courts
2004
Krstić — genocide confirmed
ICTY Appeals Chamber confirms that genocide was committed in Srebrenica in July 1995 — the first final legal ruling of its kind.
2007
ICJ genocide ruling
The International Court of Justice holds that the Srebrenica massacres constituted genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
2016 / 2019
Karadžić
Radovan Karadžić convicted of genocide in Srebrenica; life imprisonment confirmed on appeal in 2019.
2017 / 2021
Mladić
Ratko Mladić convicted of genocide in Srebrenica; life sentence upheld by the IRMCT Appeals Chamber in 2021.
May 2024
UN Day of Remembrance
UN General Assembly designates 11 July as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica.
From tribunal to remembrance
Major steps in international justice for Srebrenica.
ICTY established
The United Nations Security Council creates the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) — the first war-crimes court established by the UN — to prosecute serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991.
Krstić: first genocide judgment
In 2001 the ICTY Trial Chamber convicts General Radislav Krstić of genocide for his role in Srebrenica. On 19 April 2004 the Appeals Chamber confirms that genocide was committed in Srebrenica in July 1995 — the first final legal ruling establishing the crime as genocide — while adjusting Krstić’s conviction to aiding and abetting genocide.
ICJ rules Srebrenica was genocide
In Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro, the International Court of Justice holds that the massacres at Srebrenica constituted genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention — the first time the ICJ applies the Convention to a completed case.
Karadžić convicted
Radovan Karadžić, former President of Republika Srpska, is convicted by the ICTY in 2016 of genocide in Srebrenica, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws or customs of war. On appeal in 2019 his sentence is increased to life imprisonment.
Mladić convicted
Ratko Mladić, former commander of the Army of Republika Srpska, is convicted by the ICTY in 2017 of genocide in Srebrenica and other crimes. In 2021 the Appeals Chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) upholds his life sentence.
IRMCT continues the work
The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, established by the UN Security Council, carries forward the residual functions of the ICTY (and ICTR): appeals, residual prosecutions, protection of witnesses, management of archives, and assistance to national jurisdictions.
UN International Day of Remembrance
The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution designating 11 July as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica, affirming the established legal findings and calling for remembrance and education against denial and glorification of war criminals.
Where justice was pursued
1993–2017
ICTY
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sat in The Hague. It delivered the first international convictions for genocide since the Genocide Convention, including the landmark findings on Srebrenica.
2007
ICJ
The International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, confirmed in an inter-state case that genocide occurred at Srebrenica and that states have a duty to prevent and punish the crime.
2010–present
IRMCT
The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals continues appeals, residual cases, witness protection, and archival work of the ICTY — preserving the judicial record for future generations.
11 July — a day the world marks
On 23 May 2024, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution designating 11 July as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica.
The resolution reaffirms the legal findings of the ICTY and the ICJ, condemns denial of the genocide and glorification of war criminals, and invites all Member States and civil society to observe the day. It anchors remembrance in international law and education.
Each year on 11 July, families gather at the Potočari Memorial Center for burials of newly identified victims. The UN day joins that local act of mourning to a global commitment: to remember, to teach, and to refuse silence.
Genocide established in law
The two judgments that fixed the legal character of July 1995.
ICTY — Krstić, 19 April 2004
The ICTY Appeals Chamber confirmed that genocide was committed against the Bosnian Muslims of Srebrenica in July 1995 — the first final international criminal judgment to establish the crime as genocide. The Chamber held that Bosnian Serb forces targeted for extinction the approximately forty thousand Bosnian Muslims of Srebrenica, a group emblematic of Bosnian Muslims in general.
ICJ — 26 February 2007
In Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro, the International Court of Justice held that the massacres at Srebrenica constituted genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention — the first time the Court applied the Convention to a completed case. The ICJ also found that Serbia had violated its obligation to prevent genocide.
On the record
“The Appeals Chamber has no doubt that all this was done with genocidal intent.”
United Nations admission
“The tragedy of Srebrenica will haunt our history forever.”
Justice is memory made binding
Court judgments do not restore the dead. They establish the truth so that denial cannot rewrite history.