{"id":19317,"date":"2025-09-30T00:00:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T23:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/?p=19317"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:18:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T09:18:21","slug":"massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive Human Rights Violations Cannot Be Called a \u201cHeroic Struggle\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Considering the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/sve-sto-nam-je-ministarstvo-odbrane-precutalo-o-generalima-pavkovicu-i-lazarevicu\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ongoing attempts<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to heroize Pavkovi\u0107 \u2014 the most recent being an attempt by the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/cultural-institution-cuprija-to-cancel-the-competition-for-creating-a-mural-of-war-criminal-nebojsa-pavkovic\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cultural Institution of \u0106uprija<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to paint a large mural in the town center, which was prevented by a decision of the Commissioner for Protection Equality based on a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ravnopravnost.gov.rs\/en\/no-264-25\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">complaint<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by the YIHR Serbia \u2014 we express concern that Pavkovi\u0107\u2019s stay in Serbia will be used by Serbian officials as an additional reason to continue the practice of denying war crimes, which we have documented in the reports titled <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/report-state-of-denial-serbia-2024-lying-under-the-flag\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe State of Denial.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Friday, September 26, President Vu\u010di\u0107, contrary to his constitutional powers, announced in New York that Neboj\u0161a Pavkovi\u0107 would be released early by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague (IRMCT) due to his extremely poor health condition. Making such an announcement before the decision was officially published by the IRMCT clearly demonstrates an intention for political exploitation and undermining of good neighborly relations in the region. For security reasons, the IRMCT publishes such decisions only after the convict has been transferred to their country, based on Article 26 of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.icty.org\/en\/documents\/statute-tribunal\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ICTY Statute<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and Rules 150 and 151 of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irmct.org\/en\/documents\/rules-procedure-and-evidence\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IRMCT\u2019s Rules of Procedure and Evidence<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Friday, Vu\u010di\u0107 stated that Pavkovi\u0107 \u201cfought heroically in 1999\u201d, which is an insult to the thousands of Albanian civilian victims, for whose suffering Pavkovi\u0107 \u2014 as commander of the Third Army of the Yugoslav Army \u2014 was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 2014. The verdict confirmed that Pavkovi\u0107 was responsible for deportations, other inhumane acts (forcible transfer), murder, and persecution as crimes against humanity, and for murder as a violation of the laws and customs of war. Pavkovi\u0107 arrived in Belgrade from Finland \u2014 where he had been serving a 22-year prison sentence \u2014 on Sunday, September 28, on a plane provided by the Government of Serbia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We believe that Serbia should be a country committed to peace \u2014 a country that has learned important lessons from its own past and whose representatives, wherever they speak on its behalf, respect their mandates and demonstrate a commitment to the principles of accountability, empathy, and reconciliation. Unfortunately, once again, what has been brought to the forefront is the disregard for judicially established facts and for the victims of the 1990s wars who were not of Serbian nationality \u2014 as well as for the victims of the war in Gaza. The President of Serbia confirmed this stance through a meeting held in New York on Thursday, September 25, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for whom the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant in November 2024 for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Palestinian civilians.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR Serbia) condemns the statements and actions of President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, Prime Minister Macut and Minister of Justice Vuji\u0107, who exploited the poor health condition of Neboj\u0161a Pavkovi\u0107, a convicted war criminal, to celebrate him as a hero. It is unacceptable to use the application of basic human rights principles \u2014 which allow convicts to stay with their families and receive medical treatment in their home country due to serious health conditions \u2014 as a means to glorify and deny the massive human rights violations for which Pavkovi\u0107 was convicted with final verdict. Such actions are in direct opposition to the principles of peace and stability. Instead of, as Minister Vuji\u0107 said, &#8220;the state must stand behind Pavkovi\u0107, Karad\u017ei\u0107 and Mladi\u0107,&#8221; the Republic of Serbia must abide by the law, international obligations, and not war criminals.","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[57,1479],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Massive Human Rights Violations Cannot Be Called a \u201cHeroic Struggle\u201d - YIHR.rs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Massive Human Rights Violations Cannot Be Called a \u201cHeroic Struggle\u201d - YIHR.rs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR Serbia) condemns the statements and actions of President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, Prime Minister Macut and Minister of Justice Vuji\u0107, who exploited the poor health condition of Neboj\u0161a Pavkovi\u0107, a convicted war criminal, to celebrate him as a hero. It is unacceptable to use the application of basic human rights principles \u2014 which allow convicts to stay with their families and receive medical treatment in their home country due to serious health conditions \u2014 as a means to glorify and deny the massive human rights violations for which Pavkovi\u0107 was convicted with final verdict. Such actions are in direct opposition to the principles of peace and stability. Instead of, as Minister Vuji\u0107 said, &quot;the state must stand behind Pavkovi\u0107, Karad\u017ei\u0107 and Mladi\u0107,&quot; the Republic of Serbia must abide by the law, international obligations, and not war criminals.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"YIHR.rs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-29T23:00:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-30T09:18:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1-3.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"760\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"YIHR\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"YIHR\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"YIHR\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#\/schema\/person\/7186157598b114d93f0a98e406fcc811\"},\"headline\":\"Massive Human Rights Violations Cannot Be Called a \u201cHeroic Struggle\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-29T23:00:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-30T09:18:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/\"},\"wordCount\":447,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"Saop\u0161tenja\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/\",\"name\":\"Massive Human Rights Violations Cannot Be Called a \u201cHeroic Struggle\u201d - YIHR.rs\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-29T23:00:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-30T09:18:21+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Massive Human Rights Violations Cannot Be Called a \u201cHeroic Struggle\u201d\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/\",\"name\":\"YIHR.rs\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Inicijativa mladih za ljudska prava\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/yihr-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/yihr-logo.png\",\"width\":157,\"height\":54,\"caption\":\"Inicijativa mladih za ljudska prava\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#\/schema\/person\/7186157598b114d93f0a98e406fcc811\",\"name\":\"YIHR\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/827fb1ad44b0077db507a1ccb518d991?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/827fb1ad44b0077db507a1ccb518d991?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"YIHR\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/author\/yihr\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Massive Human Rights Violations Cannot Be Called a \u201cHeroic Struggle\u201d - YIHR.rs","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Massive Human Rights Violations Cannot Be Called a \u201cHeroic Struggle\u201d - YIHR.rs","og_description":"The Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR Serbia) condemns the statements and actions of President Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, Prime Minister Macut and Minister of Justice Vuji\u0107, who exploited the poor health condition of Neboj\u0161a Pavkovi\u0107, a convicted war criminal, to celebrate him as a hero. It is unacceptable to use the application of basic human rights principles \u2014 which allow convicts to stay with their families and receive medical treatment in their home country due to serious health conditions \u2014 as a means to glorify and deny the massive human rights violations for which Pavkovi\u0107 was convicted with final verdict. Such actions are in direct opposition to the principles of peace and stability. Instead of, as Minister Vuji\u0107 said, \"the state must stand behind Pavkovi\u0107, Karad\u017ei\u0107 and Mladi\u0107,\" the Republic of Serbia must abide by the law, international obligations, and not war criminals.","og_url":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/","og_site_name":"YIHR.rs","article_published_time":"2025-09-29T23:00:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-09-30T09:18:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":760,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/1-3.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"YIHR","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"YIHR","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/"},"author":{"name":"YIHR","@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#\/schema\/person\/7186157598b114d93f0a98e406fcc811"},"headline":"Massive Human Rights Violations Cannot Be Called a \u201cHeroic Struggle\u201d","datePublished":"2025-09-29T23:00:25+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-30T09:18:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/"},"wordCount":447,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#organization"},"articleSection":["News","Saop\u0161tenja"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/","url":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/","name":"Massive Human Rights Violations Cannot Be Called a \u201cHeroic Struggle\u201d - YIHR.rs","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-09-29T23:00:25+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-30T09:18:21+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/massive-human-rights-violations-cannot-be-called-a-heroic-struggle\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Massive Human Rights Violations Cannot Be Called a \u201cHeroic Struggle\u201d"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#website","url":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/","name":"YIHR.rs","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#organization","name":"Inicijativa mladih za ljudska prava","url":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/yihr-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/yihr-logo.png","width":157,"height":54,"caption":"Inicijativa mladih za ljudska prava"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#\/schema\/person\/7186157598b114d93f0a98e406fcc811","name":"YIHR","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/bhs\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/827fb1ad44b0077db507a1ccb518d991?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/827fb1ad44b0077db507a1ccb518d991?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"YIHR"},"url":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/author\/yihr\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19318,"href":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19317\/revisions\/19318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}