Democratizing Justice in the Post-Conflict Balkans: The Dilemma of Domestic Human Rights Activists

Years of international and national accountability efforts in the former Yugoslavia
have only partially helped post-conflict societies to transition. To complement
retributive justice efforts more recently, human rights activists have launched a
campaign to establish a regional truth commission. This article explores the intricate
efforts among nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in several states across the
region – particularly Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia – to coordinate
this movement. Drawing on participant observation and in-depth interviews, this
study illustrates the movement’s struggle from within – caused by the conflicting
interests of its members – and from outside, as it seeks support from international
and region-specific organizations as well as national governments. While activists
have remained unsuccessful in institutionalizing new truth spaces, this article argues
that the state-centric strategy of human rights advocates during the campaign
widened the gap between the activist leaders and victims’ groups, their principal
supporters.