[ Erinnerung | Memory ]

There will be a Panel on the topic Dealing with the Past at this year's Seminar in Konjic and there will also be a Summer School for Dealing with the Past [deadline is quite soon: 15.5.!]
The Summer School for Dealing with the Past is the result of the regional cooperative efforts of three research and documentation centers - Humanitarian Law Center (Serbia and Montenegro), Research and Documentation Center (Bosnia) and Documenta (Croatia).

Dealing with the past is the common denominator of all three centers. While each center approaches this complex field of activity by means of its own methodology, all agree on one point: that truth, as a precondition of all forms of justice, can be attained only through the persistent pursuit of the facts.

On April 6th 2004 the three centers signed The Protocol for Regional Cooperation in Researching and Documenting War Crimes in Post-Yugoslavian Countries, a document binding each center to the other and allowing for cooperation on various levels and activities related to the process of dealing with the past.

One of the outcomes of this cooperation has been the call for a permanent regional summer school: a unique regional endeavor and the first enterprise of its kind in the field of transitional justice and dealing with the past. It is our hope that this school will become a regional hotbed of analytical inquiry into the aspects and mechanisms enabling the successful development of the process of dealing with the past.

The Summer School for Dealing with the Past is essentially a one week educational program consisting of lectures, presentations and discussions. Lecturers and presenters are esteemed international and regional experts working in the field of transitional justice and dealing with the past. Upon completion of the school's course, each student will be awarded an official certificate from the Regional School for Dealing with the Past. The school's working language is English.

Topics to be discussed include (though are not limited to):

• Retributive and restorative justice
• Truth-telling mechanisms: commissions for truth and reconciliation
• Collective Memory
• Reparations
• Vetting and Lustration
• Reconciliation
• International tribunals for war crimes
• International Criminal Law and the ICTY
• Domestic War Crimes Trials

Who can apply?

• University students (age: 20-35) from Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia
• NGO activists (age: 20-35) from Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia

All applicants must demonstrate an excellent command of spoken and written English.

What is needed to apply?

• Curriculum Vitae (date and place of birth, education, work experience, contact information, etc.)
• Motivation Letter (please state: your reason for applying; your expectations of the school program; how your own knowledge will contribute to the school's discussions on dealing with the past; the extent to which a course on transitional justice is relevant to your academic/professional career; how knowledge gained in this school will aid your future career path, etc.)

Both documents must be written in English.

The deadline for applications is: May 15th 2005

Recruitment: The recruitment procedure consists of three phases:
1. Call for applications (deadline May 15th)
2. Selection of applicants (deadline May 31st)
3. Interviews with selected candidates - final selection round (June 1st-30th)
Interviews with selected candidates from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro will take place in Zagreb, Sarajevo and Belgrade, respectively, and will be conducted by the Project Assistant Vesna Bogojević and representatives of a host center: Documenta in Croatia, Research and Documentation Center in BiH, and Humanitarian Law Center in SCG.
Selected candidates for interviews will be contacted by phone or e-mail to be notified one week in advance about the date and time of the interview. Possible travel (and accommodation) expenses for each interview will be covered by a host center where needed.

Selection criteria:
Apart from the above-mentioned criteria (see "Who can Apply"), the selection of students will be governed by the need to establish vocational, age and gender balance, in order to achieve a more efficient group structure and work cohesion.

Applications may be sent to:
summerschool@hlc.org.yu
Or:
Fond za humanitarno pravo
(Summer School)
Makenzijeva 67
11000 Beograd
Srbija i Crna Gora
Contact person: Vesna Bogojević, Project Assistant, Humanitarian Law Center