Source: Eurojust
Ongoing conflicts and evolving forms of warfare have increasingly highlighted the impact of military operations on civilian populations and infrastructure. During the two-day event, participants discussed the complexities of international humanitarian law and its application in modern conflicts, in particular in relation to war crimes investigations and prosecutions.
The Genocide Network also used the occasion to launch a new, searchable database of selected judicial decisions on core international crimes, translated into English. The database gathers key decisions from EU Member States focused on war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, as well as other concurrent crimes such as terrorism related offences.
Prior to launching the database, the Genocide Network periodically published a compendium of translated national jurisprudence on core international crimes. These judgments will now be more easily accessible for practitioners.
The biannual meetings of the Genocide Network provide opportunities for participants to come together to exchange expertise and best practices with key stakeholders. Closed sessions also support the exchange of information on core international crimes cases and legal challenges between the Network’s national contact points and their counterparts from observer states.
The Genocide Network was established in 2011 and is hosted at Eurojust. Together, Eurojust and the Network enable close cooperation and information exchange between national authorities. Due to the often complex nature of cross-border investigations, the Agency’s support through judicial tools such as coordination meetings and coordination centres is a key success factor in many cases.