BIRN offers Grants to Explore War Crimes Archives

• Eligibility criteria:
  – Journalists, artists, historians and civil society activists who want to dig deeper in the archives of the ICTY in The Hague and national courts from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are eligible to apply.
  – Applicants should be proficient in English.
  – They are being invited to 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.
• Type of funding:
• Target country/ies:
• Application language:

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) is offering grants to journalists, artists, historians and activists to create projects based on the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and domestic courts in former Yugoslav countries that held war crimes trials.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.

The call is a part of the Enhancing Accountability and Memorialisation Processes in the Balkans project, financed by the Matra Regional Rule of Law Programme.

The topic for grantees’ small projects is exploring archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and local courts in ex-Yugoslav countries that dealt with war crimes cases. You can explore the relationships between truth, justice, accountability and dealing with the past in the former Yugoslavia. In your proposal, make sure you show the relevance of it – why should the wider audience be interested in this project? Explain what makes this project relevant and interesting.

Every grantee shall receive a €2,000 grant. Research and travel expenses are included in this €2,000 The programme officially begins in May with preparatory activities, which include conducting initial research. The duration of the on-the-job mentoring will depend on the proposed project. Research duration is six months, starting from May 2022. All projects must be published before the end of 2022.

See here to learn more and apply.
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