We are pleased to invite you to apply
for participation at the twelfth Master Class on Law, History,
Politics and Society in the Context of Mass Atrocities run by the
Geoffrey Nice foundation and being held at the Inter University
Centre (IUC) in Dubrovnik 30th June to 7th July 2024, titled:
Genocide Citizen, state, victims,
accountability case studies
WWII; Pakistan-Bangladesh 1971; Rwanda; Western Balkans 1993-1999;
Ukraine-Russia; Israel-Gaza'
This Master Class is a joint venture
between the Geoffrey Nice Foundation (GNF) and the Serbian Helsinki
Committee for Human Rights.
Application deadline is 31 March
2024.
CRITERIA:
This Master Class is devised for MA, PhD
and Post-PhD students in the fields of Law, History, Sociology,
Politics, International Relations, Journalism, European Studies or
related subjects.
Please send your application, consisting
of a CV and a short motivation letter, to:
geoffreynicefoundation@gmail.com and
kucher.na.vi@gmail.com (Please always use both addresses for all
correspondence)
GENERAL OBJECTIVE:
The interdisciplinary approach of the
Master Class contributes to developing the skills needed for legal
and non-legal professionals, who are interested in working in the
fields of human rights, international humanitarian law and global
justice.
FORMAT:
The Master Class is a combination of
lectures provided by academics, practitioners of law and NGO
activists, together with exercises and group reviewing of a few
relevant films.
METHOD/SPIRIT OF MASTER CLASS:
This is to be an intensive – immersive –
course working largely what might be thought northern European
working hours (not Mediterranean/Adriatic hours with late starts and
siestas): 0900 to 1300; 1430 to 1900 (with breaks). Punctuality
required at start, and will be respected at the end, of all
sessions. Lunch is provided in short 90-minute midday breaks. It is
expected that groups of students from different countries - into
which the Master Class will be divided - may continue discussions
and preparation of exercises over lunch.
There is no pre-reading list
(pre-reading where required for courses like this is rarely if ever
done). Instead, it will be assumed that all those attending have a
basic outline knowledge (Wikipedia if no more) of WWII;
Pakistan-Bangladesh 1971 genocide; Rwanda 1994 genocide; Western
Balkans 1993-1999 wars; Rohingya 2016-2017 genocide; Ukraine-Russia
2022>war; Israel-Gaza 2023>conflict.
Each of the six days will concentrate on a different event and will
have a different lead moderator for the day introducing the topic
(30 minutes to add to the basic knowledge all will have) and then
introducing (and moderating) other speakers, exercises, films etc.
THE FOCUS OF THIS YEAR’S MASTER CLASS:
The end of the Cold War may have left the world more secure and yet
more unstable. Old states disintegrated and new states have been
emerging leading to a time of increasing risk of real wars for us
and our families, now and to come.
Wars are failures and disasters for all sides involved from the
moment they start. Few people want wars. There have already been
many wars around the globe since World War II.
It may be reasonable and accurate to say that most humans would
prefer to live in peace and to see fellow humans around the world
living in peace.
In several wars and internal conflicts - and in all the ‘case
studies’ of the Master Class – it has been said that genocide has
been committed. ‘Genocide’ is a term used widely these days, and in
different ways by courts and by the general public. It needs to be
properly understood if to be used constructively and will be
discussed throughout the week of the Master Class.
Accountability for crimes committed in wars (war crimes trials, for
example) and internal conflicts (and persecutions by states of their
own people) has happened in some cases and is looked for in others.
How different forms of accountability can work, and the consequence
of different accountability processes, need to be understood and
will be discussed.
In wars and civil wars all citizens on all sides tend to fall in
line with their political leadership. Where any party to a war is
clearly in the wrong should all citizens of that party be held to
account as the only way to achieve general deterrence of the next
would-be criminal warmonger of persecutor of their own people? The
Master Class will consider this question and what, if anything,
citizens as well as politicians might have done to prevent the
conflicts happening.
COSTS AND FEES
GNF is a Dutch registered charity with limited funds from donations.
All GNF officers and all visiting speakers – provided by GNF - as
well as ‘permanent’ speakers are unpaid and give their time free for
the benefit of the students of the Master Class.
GNF covers costs of being part of the IUC programme at University of
Zagreb premises in Dubrovnik.
STUDENT FEES The tuition fee for Master Class, including IUC fees,
reading material and accommodation fee is EUR 496 for seven night’s
accommodation in shared rooms, lunch on the six days of the Master
Class, individual IUC fee per student and local taxes (all actual
costs of these elements). For a single occupancy room, if available,
the cost is EUR 588
If you are to be selected as participant and will fund yourself or
be funded by another (for example by a university) please ensure
transfer of this amount is made to the GNF's account by Friday 7th
June 2024.
A very limited number of scholarships/bursaries may be available
including:
Marija and Mirjan Damaška Scholarship Fund. Beneficiaries can be
from non-EU countries in Southeast Europe, and exceptionally from
other countries if they are affected by conflict or instability, and
if the courses relate to ways to overcome them.
https://iuc.hr/scholarships/damaska-scholarship-fund
IUC SOUTH-EAST EUROPEAN SCHOLARSHIP FUND
Beneficiaries can be from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria,
Kosovo, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia,
Türkiye and Ukraine.
https://iuc.hr/scholarships/iuc-support
CROATIAN MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND EDUCATION
Four scholarships per course are available for participants from
Croatian higher education and scientific institutions taking part in
IUC courses (students, professors, scientists).
https://iuc.hr/scholarships/croatian-ministry
(the IUC website also has a link to a database with some scholarship
options for those from Austria and Germany,
https://iuc.hr/scholarships/other)
GNF may be in a position from its own funds to support some
individuals who have no funding from elsewhere.
Anyone wishing to apply for a place on the Master Class seeking a
scholarship is invited in the first instance to explain the position
and the need for financial support to Anastasia Kucher when sending
in the application at the same time and always to two addresses:
kucher.na.vi@gmail.com and
geoffreynicefoundation@gmail.com
ACCOMMODATION:
Shared accommodation covered by the student course fee from Sunday
30th June to Sunday 7th July (no later than 7 July) is in same-sex
shared rooms at neighbouring, Ulica branitelja Dubrovnika 19, 20000,
Dubrovnik, Croatia (a cloister run by an order of nuns)
Meals: 2-course lunches will be provided each day for all
participants. Breakfast and evening meals are at participants’ own
cost. Breakfast may be available at reasonable cost (about 7 Euros)
at the IUC building where the Master Class is held, next to the
Cloister. Accommodation has some cooking, microwave etc facilities
within reach. There are modest supermarkets about 200 metres away,
so it is possible to prepare breakfast and evening food at regular
home-cooking prices.
ADDITIONAL EXPENSES:
Travel costs to and from Dubrovnik and costs of breakfast and
evening meals are for students to meet. Dubrovnik generally is now
expensive. For eating or drinking out in the evenings GNF will
identify restaurants – and possibly bars – where significant
discounts may be available for Master Class participants.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION:
All participants must arrive by Sunday 30 th June – informal
lunch/supper gatherings in Dubrovnik Old Town to be arranged ad hoc
for those arriving in time.
Dress code Monday-Friday: Smart casual (no shorts) – the teaching
room is efficiently air-conditioned.
The timetable does not allow for tourist activities apart from an
organised sightseeing trip of Dubrovnik on Monday evening. For those
wanting to extend time in Dubrovnik for tourism, it will probably
not be possible to stay on in the relatively inexpensive
accommodation provided for the Master Class as it may all be
required by other courses starting on Sunday 8th July. Anyone
wishing to extend for tourist purposes must make their own
arrangements.
Several speakers/lecturers will visit and stay only for a couple of
days. Others will be present throughout able to fill tutor/pastoral
roles.
COURSE DIRECTORS:
Sir Geoffrey Nice KC
Lead Prosecutor Slobodan Milošević for the UN; Emeritus Gresham
Professor of Law; Chair China Tribunal; Chair Uyghur Tribunal, (UK)
Sonja Biserko
Helsinki Committee of Human Rights of Serbia (Belgrade, Serbia)
Prof. Dr. Sunčana Roksandić
Professor of Law, University of Zagreb (Croatia)
FACULTY MEMBERS in addition to Course Directors (a list of faculty
will be amended on the website as further acceptances to invitations
to contribute are received):
Dr Payam Akavan LLM SJD (Harvard), Professor of International Law
and Senior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto, Member
of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and former Legal Advisor,
Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia (ICTY) (1994-2000).
Lord Iain Bonomy former judge of the ICTY and court of Appeal of
Scotland.
Dr Aldo Zammit Borda associate professor in International Law at
City, University of London; previously Director of the Centre for
Access to Justice and Inclusion at Anglia Ruskin University
Rodney Dixon KC Practitioner prosecuting and defending at ICTY and
ICC; co-author Archbold International Criminal Courts
Dr Robert Muharremi Assistant Professor at the Rochester Institute
of Technology – Kosovo campus
Hamid Sabi, International Lawyer, counsel to four people’s
tribunals London, UK
The Right Honourable Sir Konrad Schiemann, former judge of the
Court of Justice of the European Union and of the Court of Appeal of
England and Wales
* * *
Genocide Citizen, state, victims,
accountability case studies
WWII; Pakistan-Bangladesh 1971; Rwanda; Western Balkans 1993-1999;
Ukraine-Russia; Israel-Gaza'
DRAFT TIMETABLE
Monday 1 July
General introduction and ‘housekeeping’ Sir Geoffrey Nice KC
GENOCIDE; WWII; FIRST WAR CRIMES TRIALS; ACCOUNTABILITY OF CITIZENS
Moderator: Dr Robert Muharremi
- Rt Hon Sir Konrad Schiemann
Other speakers to be announced.
Time to be confirmed: organised sightseeing trip of Dubrovnik Old
Town
Tuesday 2 July
Pakistan-Bangladesh genocide 1971; also covered will be aspects of
the Rohingya genocide.
Moderator: Dr Aldo Zammit Borda
- Rodney Dixon KC
Wednesday 3rd July
Rwanda genocide 1994
Moderator and other speakers to be announced.
Thursday 4th July
1990s wars of the Western Balkans, Croatia – Bosnia- Kosovo
Criminal accountability for large scale atrocities in this region.
Has it worked. What might have been done for them never to have
happened?
Moderator: Prof. Dr. Sunčana Roksandić (PhD Freiburg/Max Planck
Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law): Transitional
justice
- Dr. Nevenka Tromp
Friday 5th July
UKRAINE: HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL.
A background of the war in Ukraine. What legal responses are
available at present to deal with the crimes that have been
committed in Ukraine since 2014 onward:
Moderator and other speakers to be announced.
Saturday 6 July
Israel-Gaza October 2023 and the century before
- Sir Geoffrey Nice and other speakers to be announced.
Five groups each to prepare (through week) written observations for
plenary discussion with a view to publication on website.
Evening social event (subsidised financially if possible).
Sunday 7 July
All depart.
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