Create Conditions for Revision of Verdict

“The lesson that can be derived from this book is that this issue should be put on agenda of expert discussions more often and that conditions for revising the verdict by presenting new pieces of evidence and determining new facts on the basis of those pieces of evidence should be created. Even if such facts existed before, neither the Court nor the Prosecution’s representative, in this case Bosnia and Herzegovina, were aware of them when the verdict was passed down,” said one of the book authors Ismet Alija.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only country to have filed a suit against its neighbours due to violation of the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. Stressing the importance of this process, Professor Hasan Balic, one of the book authors, said:
“This verdict should mobilise all people whose conscience has been shaken by the crime committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to help us on the road to justice,” Professor Dr. Balic said.

In 1993 Bosnia and Herzegovina filed a suit with the International Court of Justice at the Hague against Serbia and Montenegro due to violation of the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. The process began in February 2006. In February 2007 the Court pronounced the verdict, finding Serbia responsible for having violated the Convention on Genocide by failing to do all it could to prevent it and failed to punish its perpetrators or extradite them to The Hague Tribunal, but determining also that it could not be considered responsible for genocide committed in Srebrenica in July 1995.In this case the parties do not have the right to file appeals, but they were given a deadline of ten years for revision of the verdict. The deadline for the revision expires in February 2017.

Besides Balic and Alija, Avdija Kovacevic is one of the co-authors of the book titled “The International Court of Justice – Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Serbia and Montenegro”.