This year is the first time that 11 July is marked as International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica, following the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of a resolution designating the day. In his message published ahead of that day, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, stressed the importance of remembering, of honouring the victims, of countering the denial of genocide and the glorification of those who perpetrated it, and of acting to prevent gross human rights violations in the future:
“I was a United Nations human rights field officer during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of the most important tasks of my colleagues and myself was to chronicle the atrocities that were perpetrated right across the period of the conflict.
By far the most horrific of those was, of course, the genocide at Srebrenica. In July 1995, with the vicious murder of over 8000 men, the brutal violation of the human rights of women and children, and their subsequent expulsion from the area.
I very much welcome that, finally, the United Nations has declared an annual day of remembrance for the genocide.
On that day of remembrance, we need to do four things.
The first is that we must remember. It is essential that we recall what happened in all its detail, we never forget because it is when we forget that there is a danger that such awful things can happen again.
Second, we must honour. We must honour those who died. We must honour the victims of the abuses. We must honour their relatives and their descendants.
Third, we must be outraged. We must be outraged against those who deny the fact of the genocide, or who glorify those who perpetrated it.
And fourth, and finally, we must act. We must recommit to building societies with the thread of human rights holding them together, where acts of genocide would be inconceivable.”