UN Human Rights Chief welcomes resolution to commemorate 1995 genocide in Srebrenica

I welcome the resolution adopted today by the UN General Assembly to designate 11 July as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica. This resolution is further recognition  of the victims and survivors and their pursuit of justice, truth and guarantees of non-recurrence. It is also an important step towards promotion of a culture of remembrance and peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in the region.

The resolution is all the more important given the persistent revisionism, denial of the Srebrenica genocide, and hate speech by high-level political leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in neighbouring countries. Recent weeks have underscored how urgent it is to deal with the past in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Western Balkans. 

Political leaders in the region have the responsibility to engage in a constructive dialogue to build peaceful societies where people can live safely and freely, without discrimination or fear of conflict and violence.

The new International Day agreed today stands alongside the General Assembly’s earlier action to establish an International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. United Nations courts have established that genocide was committed in and around Srebrenica in July 1995, and in Rwanda in 1994. 

I firmly stand against the denial of the genocide perpetrated in July 1995 in Srebrenica and of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed across Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-1995 conflict, and other attempts to rewrite the  history of these events painstakingly documented through the judicial process. I also firmly stand against the glorification of war criminals and against any form of hate speech and discrimination.