2012
In Nuhanović and Mustafić (5 July 2011), the Court of Appeal of The Hague held the Netherlands liable under Bosnian torts law in relation to acts of Dutchbat in the days following the fall of Srebrenica. The claims were brought … Read more
13 April 2012
Today, the Dutch Supreme Court affirmed the Hague Court of Appeal’s decision that it does not have jurisdiction to deal with the claim of the Mothers of Srebrenica against the United Nations. The Mothers of Srebrenica instigated proceedings before Dutch courts against both the Netherlands and the United Nations, claiming they had failed to prevent the genocide in Srebrenica.
The plaintiff’s submission that UN immunity should be set aside in order to ensure the right to a fair trial in Article 6 ECHR was rejected. The Supreme Court held that the Court of Appeal erred in relying on the criteria in the ECtHR cases Beer and Regan and Waite and Kennedy in order to evaluate whether UN immunity should be set aside for the right to a fair trial. The Supreme Court held that the immunity of the United Nations is absolute, and that obligations under the UN Charter should prevail over obligations arising from other international agreements according to Article 103 UN Charter. In this context, the Supreme Court followed the ECtHR’s decision in Behrami and Saramati.
The plaintiff’s submission that in case of breaches of peremptory norms the UN is not entitled to immunity was also rejected. In order to support its decision that rules of ius cogens do not set aside rules on immunity, the Supreme Court referred to the ICJ’s recent judgment in the case Germany v. Italy.
The Mothers’ claim against the Netherlands is yet to be considered in first instance.
Source: Washington Post | Dutch court rules United Nations has immunity in Srebrenica massacre case
2012
The tragic events in the 1990s in Rwanda, Srebrenica and Kosovo, and the crisis in Libya in 2011 have triggered a fundamental rethinking of the role and responsibility of the international community. It is now accepted that while individual states … Read more
2011
On 5 July 2011 the Court of Appeal of The Hague held that the state of the Netherlands had acted unlawfully and is liable, under Dutch law, for evicting four Bosnian nationals from the compound of Dutchbat in Srebrenica on … Read more
8 July 2011
On 5 July 2011, the Court of Appeal of the Hague decided that the State of the Netherlands had acted unlawfully and is liable for evicting Bosnian nationals from the compound of Dutchbat in Srebrenica on 12 July 1995. Ibro Nuhanovic, Muhamed Nuhanovic, Nasiha Nuhanovic and Rizo Mustafic were subsequently killed by Bosnian Serbs, as part of what the ICTY and the ICJ later found to be acts of genocide.
The decision adds another chapter to the tortuous attempt of the Netherlands to cope with its multiple failures, with dramatic consequences, in its policies and decisions regarding the conduct of Dutch peacekeeping troops in Srebrenica in 1995, In 2002, the Government of then prime minister Wim Kok resigned after a report held it partly to blame for the failure to offer protection in Srebenica. At the time, Kok said that he accepted political, but no legal responsibility. Almost ten years later, the Court of Appeal has made clear that the responsibility is not only political, but that the Dutch policy in regard of Srebrenica also has engaged its legal liability. (more…)