Can International Criminal Tribunals Ever Be Enough?: An Assessment of the Ability of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to Foster Thick Reconciliation in Bosnia

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2013
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Haverford College. Department of Political Science
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
On May 25, 1993, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resurrected Nuremberg in the 20th century. The UNSC unanimously voted in favor of passing Resolution 827 which mandated the formation of the first international criminal tribunal since 1945. This resolution created the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in order to prosecute grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, violations of the customs of war, genocide, and crimes against humanity occurring in the former Yugoslavia beginning in 1991. The United Nations (UN) solemnly affirmed that the UN and the ICTY could together play an integral role in bringing an end to the cycle of violence and hatred in Bosnia as well as in promoting reconciliation throughout the former Yugoslavia. To this day, the UN still argues in favor of the use of international criminal tribunals as means to foster reconciliation. This thesis examines the relationship between international criminal tribunals and reconciliation by assessing the ability of international criminal tribunals to solely serve retributive justice and subsequently enact processes of thick reconciliation in countries recovering from intra‐state violence. Thick reconciliation is defined by the presence of a shared comprehensive vision, mutual healing, and restoration: confession, sacrifice, and redemption have all occurred among the formerly warring parties. This thesis argues that the ICTY failed to promote thick reconciliation in Bosnia because of its international dimension and its trial dimension. The thin version of reconciliation promoted by the UNSC in Bosnia was not sufficient to establish a new political system that would be respected by and receptive towards the civilian population, would ensure that violence did not reemerge, and would enable the country to experience a peaceful resolution to the conflict through the establishment the rule of law. The ICTY unsuccessfully fostered honest and open dialogue, mutual respect among victims and perpetrators, and an environment beyond that of coexistence in Bosnia.
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