A panel discussion in Sarajevo shed light on three decades of transitional justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as panellists reflected on the achievements, shortcomings and steps still needed to ensure justice for the victims of the 1992–95 war.
A panel discussion held in Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, on Tuesday focused on the transitional justice efforts that the country went through since the end of the 1992-95 war, which took more than 100,000 lives.
The discussion brought together representatives of victims’ associations, international organisations, legal experts and EU officials, all of whom agreed that while some progress has been made, the burden of seeking justice has largely fallen on victims themselves rather than on the state.
Bakira Hasecic, founder and president of the Association of Women Victims of War, warned that many survivors remain excluded from legal protection and basic rights. She said that civilian victims who survived torture and abuse are not recognised under existing laws if they no longer hold Bosnian citizenship.
“Survivors who went through those ordeals are not recognised under this law and cannot exercise their rights because they are not citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Hasecic said, adding that although authorities have promised to correct this injustice, months have passed without progress. “It is obvious that this is a political issue,” she said.
According to Hasecic, such legal barriers have far-reaching consequences. “In this way, we are losing witnesses, justice and truth,” she said, stressing that survivors are being systematically discriminated against. She urged institutions to recognise the rights of victims who took another citizenship after the war, noting that they endured torture while they were still Bosnian citizens. “We, the victims, are doing the job that the state should be doing,” she said.
Klaudia Kuljuh, head of programmes at TRIAL International BiH, said Bosnia and Herzegovina still lacks a comprehensive state-level law on civilian victims of war, despite repeated attempts and international pressure. While entity-level laws exist both in the Federation and Republika Srpska, their implementation remains incomplete.
“The UN also put pressure on the authorities and nothing was done,” Kuhulj said, explaining that international recommendations allow for the absence of a state law only if entity laws are fully harmonised and implemented, which is not the case.
She noted that while some financial support has been secured, other crucial aspects, such as rehabilitation, access to information and memorialisation, remain unresolved. “Biology does its work, and we have fewer and fewer beneficiaries of this law,” Kuhulj warned. “The state owes a lot to those who remain – support, information about places of disappearance, marking sites of suffering.”
Legal expert Prof. Dr Goran Simic questioned the broader impact of war crimes trials, arguing that the expectations placed on the judiciary were unrealistic. “We naively believed that war crimes trials bring justice – they do not, or they do so only in a very small number of cases,” he said, noting that compensation was awarded in only a handful of cases out of more than 900 adjudicated.
Simic also criticised the tendency to reduce responsibility for wartime atrocities solely to convicted individuals. “You cannot transfer responsibility for war crimes onto just 1,000 people,” he said, adding that despite those convictions, genuine reconciliation has not been achieved.
He identified education as a critical missing link, saying that court verdicts rarely find their way into school curricula. “Our problem is not that we do not have verdicts; the problem is where those verdicts are,” Simic said, pointing to ethnically divided narratives that portray one side exclusively as victims and others as perpetrators.
Lejla Gacanica, human rights officer for transitional justice at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNHCR, said most progress so far has been driven by victims’ groups and civil society organisations, a model she described as unsustainable. “It is time for the state to take bigger steps in relation to current needs,” she said.
Representing the EU Delegation, policy officer Fermín Córdoba stressed the importance of institutional cooperation, particularly in the context of EU accession talks. He said transitional justice falls under the first cluster of negotiations and key priority Number Five, but acknowledged persistent resistance from authorities. “We tried to negotiate with the authorities, but we always hit a wall,” Córdoba said.
The panel concluded that without stronger political will, full legal implementation and meaningful engagement with victims, Bosnia risks allowing time to erode both justice and truth, leaving reconciliation an unfulfilled promise, three decades after the war.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the panelist(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or BIRN. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Workshop Overview and Participant Breakdown
Date and place: 20 January 2026
Number of participants per country:
BiH 28
Austria 1
Netherlands 2
Belgium 2
Czech Republic 2
France 2
Spain 1
Germany 2
Sweden 2
Total number of participants: 42
The full findings and activities are available in the EDS Report, which can be accessed here.
