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The Hague Tribunal’s audio-visual archive. Photo: ICTY.

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network has launched a call for proposals for small projects by journalists, artists, historians and civil society activists covering topics related to the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and domestic courts in former Yugoslav countries that dealt with war crimes cases.

BIRN said that it is seeking projects that will creatively use courts’ archives in order to promote truth, justice and accountability in the Balkans.

The projects can “explore questions such as criminal justice, victims’ testimonies, missing persons, reparations, lustration, responsibility as well as other issues related to transitional justice and dealing with the past”, it said in an announcement.

“All journalists, artists, historians and civil society activists willing to dig deeper in the archives of the ICTY and national courts from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are eligible to apply,” it added.

Ten selected grantees will receive 2,000 euros each to develop their ideas over around six months.

“The project’s aim is to promote and disseminate the archives of the international and local courts, in order to build capacities of target groups to use legacies of courts to fight denial and disinformation among Western Balkan societies, thus increasing their intercultural dialogue and prospects for reconciliation,” BIRN said.

Further information about the application process can be found here.

The call is a part of the ‘Shaping and Promoting War Crime Trial Narratives in the Western Balkans’ project, financed by the Matra Regional Rule-of-Law Programme.