Dutch court confirms UN immunity in Srebrenica case

A group representing victims' families from the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica received a blow Friday when the Dutch supreme court ruled against their plans to claim compensation from the UN. The Hague-based court turned down a final attempt by the Mothers of Srebrenica, a group claiming to represent thousands of relatives and family members of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys murdered during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, to sue the global body.
"The United Nations cannot be sued before a judge in the Netherlands," the Supreme Court said in an online statement, adding it "endorses the view that what's at stake is the UN's extreme immunity and therefore it cannot be sued before any national court." Lawyers for the Mothers of Srebrenica sued the UN and the Dutch state in June 2007 for their perceived roles in the massacre in July 1995, when Dutch UN peacekeepers - charged with protecting civilians - were overrun by Bosnian Serb forces under the command of general Ratko Mladic.
In the following days, Muslim men and boys either surrendered or were rounded up and systematically executed in the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II. "The Mothers of Srebrenica wanted the court to rule that the UN was negligent in the prevention of genocide - the most serious violation of human rights," the court statement said, therefore waiving the world body's immunity in favour of human rights laws.
Their bid had already been turned down in 2008 and on appeal in 2010 by lower courts before lawyers finally took it to the Supreme Court - which also ruled the UN's immunity "is absolute."
"It is directly related to its role in maintaining peace and security in the world and therefore it is important its immunity remains as strong as possible," the Supreme Court said. The court ruling did however add that the lawsuit against the Dutch state "and those who committed the genocide" could still go ahead. "We are disappointed at the court's verdict," Axel Hagedorn, a lawyer representing the Mothers of Srebrenica, told AFP.
He said the group now planned to take the case against the UN to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. A Dutch appeals court ruled in July last year that the Dutch state was responsible for the deaths of three Muslim men during the Srebrenica massacre, also opening the way for compensation claims.