Some countries are working on a draft resolution to declare July 11th as the International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide, according to a document seen by Voice of America.

Rwanda and Germany are leading this effort, but according to information provided by Voice of America, the United States, Albania, Bosnia, Chile, Finland, New Zealand, Turkey, and other countries are also part of this initiative.

The draft resolution is partly based on the 2004 United Nations General Assembly resolution, which declared April 7th as the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The draft resolution will be presented at a broader closed-door meeting of UN member states on April 17th. In this meeting, the drafters of the resolution may take into account proposals from other member states and assess the support they can expect for their initiative at the UN General Assembly, which consists of 193 member states.

In the text of the draft resolution, seen by Voice of America, among other things, any attempt to deny the genocide in Srebrenica and to glorify those convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide is condemned. It also emphasizes the importance of completing the process of finding and identifying remaining victims of the Srebrenica genocide and continuing efforts to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice.

The draft resolution calls on the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish a program called “The Srebrenica Genocide and the United Nations,” which would be responsible for organizing activities to mark the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre in 2025. According to Voice of America sources, Serbia is strongly lobbying against the draft resolution.

On July 11th, 1995, more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys were executed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019 for genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws and customs of war, related to his leadership role in the campaign of terror against the civilian population, including the Srebrenica massacre, one of the worst atrocities in Europe since the end of World War II.(VOA)

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