Thirty years on, Srebrenica still lives under the shadow of genocide

Time has passed, but it hasn't healed all the wounds in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because it suits some people to exploit the pains of the past for their own gain, writes UN special rapporteur Mary Lawlor

A doctor and forensic anthropologist handles a bag containing human remains exhumed at a laboratory in Tuzla, on June 4, 2025. More than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed within a matter of days in July 1995 after Bosnian Serb forces captured Srebrenica. Picture: Elvis Barukcic/AFP via Getty Images

In June this year, I visited the memorial to the Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

To stand among the markers and see all the names etched on the memorial wall brought back to me those horrible days, where men and boys were separated from their loved ones and brought to surrounding schools and community halls to be murdered.