Victims of NATO bombardment in Libya or Afghanistan can finally get justice. The Nuhanovic Foundation, a Dutch organisation, has been set up to help people who are victims of war crimes.

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By Myrtille van Bommel

Dr Liesbeth Zegveld, a lawyer and professor of international humanitarian law, started the foundation. According to Dr Zegveld, individual governments and international organisations are primarily concerned with gathering evidence and prosecuting war criminals, such as the recently arrested former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic but adds, “the victims of the mass rapes, murders or bombardments are virtually ignored".

Lacunae in international law
The lack of attention paid to the victims of war crimes is what motivated her to help them find justice and get compensation for their suffering. Until now, there was nowhere for them to go as international tribunals and courts make no provisions for hearing cases of individual victims. The Nuhanovic Foundation's first task is to tackle the numerous lacunae in international law such as the complete immunity enjoyed by various organisations such as the United Nations or NATO. The professor says it is extremely difficult to take these organisations to court.

Dr Zegveld: “when the Netherlands and numerous other Western European countries join together and take part in a military operation, it is usually part of a broader peacekeeping operation run by the United Nations or NATO. But just who or what is the UN and NATO, and what can you do with them? Those are extremely complicated questions that have not, strangely enough, been thought about very much."

Professor Zegveld intends to find out how people who have suffered through the actions of organisations such as NATO or the UN can get justice. Dr Willem van Genugten, professor of international law at the University of Tilburg, agrees that there are lacunae in international law but is far from optimistic about efforts to fill them.

Professor van Genugten: “it is a very good idea to clarify the issue. In regard to NATO and the UN, where does immunity from prosecution end and responsibility begin? How far can they go in order to achieve their goals? When can they be said to have exceeded their mandates? In order to determine the answers to these questions we actually need a number of cases that are far more extreme, far worse, than the ones that have already taken place."

Statute of limitations
The statute of limitations is another vital issue for the Nuhanovic Foundation: warcrimes victims must initiate civil procedures within a certain number of years or the statute of limitations will have run out. Professor Zegveld: “the statute of limitations in the Netherlands is five years, which is just ridiculous. At the moment we are trying to determine if we can prosecute Mladic for what he did in Srebrenica. However, that took place 16 years ago and we don't know whether this means the victims will be unable to get justice, even though the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is now going to start its’ prosecution of him."

The Nuhanovic Foundation primarily offers legal expertise and advice to victim's lawyers, not the victims themselves but it also plans to finance the often long, drawn-out legal proceedings as well. At the moment, the Nuhanovic Foundation does not have the necessary funds to do so but hopes to secure funding from donors in future. Professor van Genugten thinks it will be very difficult to gain the necessary funding: “there are far too few cases where it's clear that a crime has been committed". According to the professor, the suffering of war crimes victims is not universally acknowledged in the way that human rights and environmental issues are.

The Nuhanovic Foundation
The Nuhanovic Foundation was named after Hasan Nuhanovic, a Bosnian whose family was murdered in Srebrenica in 1995 by the Bosnian Serb military. Dr Zegveld is his lawyer and has been bringing cases against the Dutch state on his behalf for the past decade. In 1995, Dutchbat soldiers operating under the auspices of the United Nations, handed over Mr Nuhanovic's family members to Bosnian Serb soldiers. The case is typical of the kinds of procedures that the foundation plans to support.

The Dutch High Court will announce its’ verdict on 5 July 2011.