UN Assembly adopts resolution establishing Srebrenica Genocide Day

The United Nations General Assembly on May 23 adopted a resolution establishing an annual International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide on July 11, according to Balkan Insight.

Eighty-four countries voted for the resolution and 19 voted against it. Another 68 countries abstained, while 22 did not vote.

Three of the five UN Security Council permanent members – the United States, United Kingdom and France – voted in favour of the resolution while the other two, Russia and China, voted against.

Of the Balkan and Central European countries, Serbia and Hungary voted against, Slovakia and Greece abstained, while the rest were in favour.

Germany’s permanent representative to the UN, Antje Leendertse, said that the initiative for the resolution “is about honouring the memory of the victims and supporting the survivors who continue to live with the scars of that fateful time”.

She insisted that the resolution is not directed against any country, including Serbia, but “if at all, it is directed against perpetrators of genocide”.

But Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic called the resolution “highly politicised”. He noted that the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia’s verdicts have already established the personal responsibility of those convicted of Srebrenica crimes. 

“This resolution will open Pandora’s Box, you are going to face dozens of this type of resolutions on the genocide issue,” Vucic warned.