International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica, July 11, 2025
July 11, 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, perpetrated in 1995 by Bosnian Serb military forces under the watch of an inert international community. This historical event, along with the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, has had a decisive influence on the evolution of international criminal law and the assumption of a real global commitment to genocide prevention. In May 2024, on the initiative of Germany and Rwanda, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/78/282, proclaiming July 11 as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide. The aim is to emphasize the importance of keeping the memory of this event alive and understanding the profound social and political processes that created the conditions for its perpetration. At the same time, it seeks to highlight how these same processes today hinder the overcoming of a collective trauma that is still latent in society.
Between the 1990s and early 2000s, the Balkans were affected by a series of armed conflicts fueled by the rise of nationalist parties and the strong destabilization caused by the dissolution of the former Yugoslav entity. Bosnia and Herzegovina, then characterized by an extremely multicultural socio-cultural fabric, was the scene of the most enduring and bloody war among the three major ethno-national groups: Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Muslims, and Bosnian Croats. In the eastern part of the country, where Srebrenica is located, the Bosnian Serb army systematically carried out an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Bosnian Muslim civilian population with the aim of making that area ethnically homogeneous and, consequently, annexing it to Serbia. From 1992, Srebrenica became an enclave under the command of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, predominantly Bosnian Muslim. This contributed to attracting thousands of civilians fleeing from surrounding territories, dramatically increasing the city's demographic concentration and triggering an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Faced with this catastrophic situation, on April 16, 1993, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 819 designating Srebrenica as a "safe area," followed by a ceasefire agreement imposing a demilitarization of the area monitored by the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR). The latter established their command base in Potočari, about 5 kilometers from the enclave. The numerical inferiority and lack of preparation of the troops present, combined with the inadequacy of the solutions proposed by the leadership and the inertia of the international community, paved the way for the Bosnian Serb troops.
In early July 1995, General Ratko Mladić launched the "Krivaja 95" offensive, which ended with the conquest of Srebrenica. Its imminent fall prompted around 30,000 civilians to seek refuge: most of them women, children, and elderly people, along with some men, headed for the UN base in Potočari. Meanwhile, the majority of men of fighting age desperately attempted to escape through the surrounding woods, aiming to reach territory controlled by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Reached by Bosnian Serb forces, the former were deported, while the latter were detained and then methodically murdered. Their bodies were buried in numerous mass graves, only to be barbarically moved and reburied a few months later in secondary and tertiary graves by Bosnian Serb troops to conceal the crimes committed. There were more than 8,000 victims, and to this day, several remains are still missing, depriving families of the possibility of giving them a proper burial and the right to know the fate of their loved ones. The genocidal nature of these events was confirmed by both the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Sixteen people were found guilty of crimes perpetrated in Srebrenica, including Radislav Krstić, Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić.
On July 8, 2025, senior United Nations officials and some survivors of the Srebrenica genocide gathered at the United Nations General Assembly to commemorate its thirtieth anniversary together. Officials expressed concern about frequent genocide denial and the persistent glorification of war criminals, which can exacerbate existing fractures in Bosnian society and undermine the path to reconciliation. General Assembly President Philémon Yang emphasized the importance of education in countering historical revisionism and the repetition of such atrocities, an element also echoed by Secretary-General António Guterres, who highlighted the existence of disturbing parallels between the current context and the socio-political mechanisms that preceded the Srebrenica genocide.