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After several missions in Colombia, and in conjunction with the Colombian NGO Fundación Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos, TRIAL International managed to trace a former member of a Colombian paramilitary group called United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), who may have been involved in the execution of numerous students and lecturers at the Univers...

In partnership with the NGOs Open Society Justice Initiative and Conflict Awareness Project, TRIAL International, filed a report against Argor-Heraeus SA before the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland in November 2013. That company was accused of refining nearly three tonnes of gold pillaged by rebels in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR...

During the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s, Amir Coralic (otherwise known as “Pango”) was a soldier in the pro-independence Bosniak army of Bihac Province – the “National Defense”. In December 1993, Amir Coralic and two other militiamen abducted Marina, a 14-year-old girl, and her cousin Adela, a 15-year-old girl (assumed names), from their home. The two gir...

In 1993, Elma Z. (assumed name) was with her daughter at home in Vogosca (Bosnia & Herzegovina) when a member of the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS) barged in, pointed a gun and forced her to get into his car where he raped her. The same thing happened again later that year. Elma Z. feared she or her daughter would be killed if she resisted her rapist. Year...

In 1992, Lejla B. (assumed name) left her hometown of Zivinice to join her 19-years old son in Bosanski Samac. Upon arrival, she found that the Army of the Republika Srpska was occupying the town. They had sent her son to a forced labor camp where he was eventually shot on 3 July 1992. On the week of her son's death, Lejla B. was arrested by three policemen and taken...

Ana B. (assumed name) was fourteen years old when she was raped by soldiers of the Army of Republika Srpska in Kotor Varos (Bosnia & Herzegovina) in 1992. Although Ana B. and her family reported the crime immediately and were heard by the authorities, the case stalled for 20 years. Investigation In 2012, TRIAL International took up the case and pressured the autho...

On 25 January 2011, the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (WG-UPR) reviewed Nepal. As a result, on 8 March 2011, the report of the WG-UPR was published, containing a number of recommendations to Nepal. On 4 November 2015, Nepal will be subjected to a second review. In anticipation thereof, TRIAL submitted this report in March 2015, providing informatio...

Sarajevo - After several years of legal battle, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced several soldiers of the Republika Srpksa Army (VRS) to 10 years each in prison for war crime. Bosiljko and Ostoja Markovic; were found guilty for rapes committed in Kotor Varoš district against a woman of Croatian nationality in June 1992. For the very first time in BiH histo...

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAGS) decided not to further prosecute the Swiss precious metals company Argor-Heraeus SA, that handled dirty African gold. While Swiss authorities acknowledged that Argor did refine looted gold and violated its duty of diligence, the case was nonetheless closed, a decision met with disbelief by the three NGOs working...

The Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted two days ago in urgent procedure important amendments to the Criminal Code. By recalibrating the crimes of torture, enforced disappearance and rape, the amended Criminal Code will help tackle widespread impunity, break the law of silence and provide justice and recognition to thousands of victims all across...

The United Nations delivered landmark decisions by giving justice to three conflict-era victims in Nepal. The decisions, rendered by one of the most prominent international human rights bodies, send a message of hope to the families of all victims of enforced disappearances and torture in the country. As widespread impunity still prevails in post-conflict Nepal, the G...

In October 2014, TRIAL and three international and local organizations submitted an additional note of allegations to the Special Rapporteur on Truth, Justice, Reparations and Guarantees of Non-recurrence and to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to update them on alarming developments, including the flight of a war criminal, related to the au...