In his message published ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, stressed the importance of honouring the victims and of listening to civil society to prevent human rights violations in the future:
“I was in Bosnia and Herzegovina 30 years ago. I vividly recall the fall of each of the safe areas, with horrific consequences for those who lived there. We remember the genocide at Srebrenica on this 30th anniversary.
We recall and we honour the over 8,000 men and boys who were massacred at Srebrenica. We honour them through memorialisation. We determine never again to see such an atrocity perpetrated on the soil of our continent.
But in order to honour and deliver on that commitment, we have to learn from what happened at Srebrenica. We have, among other things, to remember how vital it is to stay heavily invested in a thriving civil society.
Civil society warned about what would happen at Srebrenica. It was not listened to. My own boss, the then UN Special Rapporteur Mazowiecki, also warned. He was not listened to. He quit in protest.
Civil society was the voice that insisted on justice for those against whom the atrocity of genocide had been perpetrated. The Mothers of Srebrenica kept alive the stories of what happened in the spirit of ensuring it never happened again and that justice be delivered.
Time and time again today, we see how it is civil society that alerts us to impending atrocity and towards a better and more peaceful future. But at the same time, as we acknowledge the essential role of civil society, we have to see the extent to which it is under threat and pressure. Right across Europe, I see the extent to which civil society is pushed to the margins, is subject to threat and violence, is legislated or regulated out of any possibility of doing its job.
This is not good enough. We have to seize this moment to re-acknowledge the central role of civil society for safe societies, for thriving societies.
I encourage all of us today to make our commitment towards that goal central to the way in which we personally honour the memory of those who were killed at Srebrenica.”
Watch the Commissioner's video message: