RECOM Reconciliation Network

RECOM is a regional commission for the establishment of facts about war crimes and other serious violations of human rights committed in the former Yugoslavia from January 1, 1991 until December 31, 2001. The Initiative for RECOM advocates for the establishment of RECOM.

The RECOM Process was launched by a debate on the instruments for truth-telling and for the disclosure of truth about the past. The debate was held in May 2006 at the First Regional Forum for Transitional Justice, organized by the Humanitarian Law Center (Serbia), the Research and Documentation Center (BH) and Documenta (Croatia ). The participants—representatives of non-governmental organizations and associations of families of the missing persons and victims from the post-Yugoslav countries—voted for a regional approach to establishing the facts about the war crimes, on the grounds that the war took place on the territory of several countries and that the victims and perpetrators, in most cases, do not live in the same country.

The Coalition for RECOM was established at the Fourth Regional Forum for Transitional Justice, held on October 28, 2008 in Pristina. Over the next three years, the Coalition prompted the most comprehensive social debate ever to be undertaken in this region: the consultation process on the mandate of RECOM included 6,700 representatives of civil society, including human rights organizations, victims, families of victims and missing persons, refugees, veterans, inmates, lawyers, artists, writers, journalists and other prominent individuals. At various round tables participants expressed their suggestions and views on the mandate of this regional, interstate body designed to disclose and disseminate facts about war crimes and other serious violations of human rights, facts about victims and perpetrators alike. 128 local and regional meetings were held, as well as eight international Forums for Transitional Justice. The views expressed in these gatherings were translated into the Draft Statute of RECOM, which was then analyzed by the Expert Group, consisting of the presidential and BH Presidency delegates from the participating countries in the region. After a year of work, on October 28, 2014, the Expert Group submitted to the Coalition its proposed Amendments to the Statute, which were subsequently adopted by the Coalition Assembly on November 14, 2014.

According to the Draft Statute, RECOM is an intergovernmental committee established by the states constituted on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. This extra-judicial body will be tasked with: investigating all allegations of war crimes and other serious human rights violations in connection with the war; listing the names of all war victims and victims of crimes pertaining to the war; and collecting the information about the camps and other centers of forced detention. The regional commission will be independent of its founders. It will be funded from donations.

The Initiative for RECOM calls all post-Yugoslav countries to jointly establish this commission and determine the facts important for the history and for the future of the whole region of the ​​former Yugoslavia, facts that will be equally acceptable to all former warring parties. By the end of 2014, more than 580,000 people from all over former Yugoslavia supported the initiative for the establishment of RECOM with their signatures.

 

 

 

This website was created and maintained with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the RECOM Reconciliation Network and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.