A RACE AGAINST TIME - Successes and Challenges in the Implementation of the National War Crimes Processing Strategy of Bosnia and Herzegovina

More than 25 years since the end of the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), nearly 500 war crimes cases, involving over 4,000 known suspects, remain before the country's prosecutors' offices. At the current rate of processing, the deadline of the Revised National War Crimes Processing Strategy (Strategy) to process all remaining cases by the end of 2023 will be missed. It is also no longer an exaggeration to state that, with each passing day, the likelihood of achieving justice for the remaining victims of the atrocities committed during the war diminishes – a result of the death and illness of suspects, defendants, witnesses, and victims, coupled with a decreasing quality in the evidence to support prosecutions. Justice is now in a race against time.