The International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down its decision Monday in “Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro).” That’s the long name for the case that the government of Bosnia brought in 1993 against what was then known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) – Serbia and Montenegro. Since then, Serbia and Montenegro have also split. In the case, Bosnia contended that the FRY was violating its obligations under the UN Genocide Convention, by being responsible for genocide in Bosnia. The ICJ – not to be confused with the International Criminal Court (ICC) – is an organ of the United Nations that adjudicates disputes between states. Unlike the ICC, it does not determine individual criminal guilt.

The ICJ held Serbia very narrowly responsible for failing to prevent the massacres at Srebrenica and for failing to fulfill its obligations to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in apprehending Bosnian Serb General Radko Mladic, who is accused of genocide at Srebrenica. Here are key findings:

The court concluded that there was no genocide in Bosnia, except for the massacres in July 1995 around Srebrenica. Therefore, there could be no question of FRY responsibility for genocide, except with regard to its responsibility for Srebrenica. Because the ICJ was exercising jurisdiction under the Genocide Convention, it did not determine whether crimes against humanity or war crimes had been committed or FRY responsibilities for such crimes.

The FRY was not directly responsible for the genocide at Srebrenica, because the Bosnian Serb military units that carried out the Srebrenica massacres were not legally “organs” of the FRY, nor were the Bosnian Serb political and military leaders acting under the direction or control of the FRY.

The FRY was not responsible for “complicity in genocide,” a separate offense under the Genocide Convention, because it was not established that the FRY provided aid or assistance to the perpetrators at Srebrenica with knowledge that those perpetrators had the specific intent to commit genocide.

The court did, however, conclude that the FRY violated its duty to try to prevent genocide:

In view of their undeniable influence and of the information, voicing serious concern, in their possession, the Yugoslav federal authorities should, in the view of the Court, have made the best efforts within their power to try and prevent the tragic events then taking shape [at Srebrenica in July 1995], whose scale, though it could not have been foreseen with certainty, might at least have been surmised.

(Photo courtesy Ron Haviv.)