Closed UN meeting on Srebrenica resolution draft scheduled for April 17

(Patria) - The draft resolution declaring July 11 as the International Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide will be presented on April 17 at a closed meeting at the United Nations (UN), reports Voice of America.

The final resolution, which is still being worked on and is subject to changes, could be voted on by UN member states at a session of the UN General Assembly in early May.

The crime in Srebrenica was designated as genocide before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

It refers to the killing of more than 8,000 Bosniaks, as established by international court verdicts, in July 1995, when the Army of Republika Srpska captured Srebrenica.

The draft resolution calls for the unreserved condemnation of any denial of the Srebrenica genocide and encourages UN member states to preserve established facts and develop appropriate programs through their educational systems to prevent revisionism and genocide in the future.

It also condemns actions that glorify those convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, including those responsible for the Srebrenica genocide.

The draft resolution emphasizes the importance of completing the process of finding and identifying the remaining victims of the Srebrenica genocide and their dignified burial, and calls for the continued prosecution of the perpetrators of the Srebrenica genocide.

The proposal to establish an International Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide is based on a 2004 UN General Assembly resolution establishing the International Day of Remembrance of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The initiators of the resolution are Germany and Rwanda, but as Voice of America unofficially learns, the United States (USA), Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Finland, Jordan, New Zealand, Turkey, and other countries will participate in drafting the text.