Marjorie Cohn (born November 1, 1948) [1] is a professor of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, California, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild. [2] [3]
In 1978 Cohn received a job in the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. [4] She also "participated in delegations to Cuba, China, Russia, and Yugoslavia" early in her career. [4]
Cohn strongly opposed the "U.S.-engineered deportation" of Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for crimes against humanity committed in Yugoslavia. She accused the West of targeting Serbian civilians and stated the deportation to the Tribunal was "a crime against the people of Yugoslavia". [5]
Cohn has contributed online commentary criticizing the former Bush administration to web sites such as MWC News, AlterNet, CounterPunch, CommonDreams, After Downing Street, ZNet and Truthdig. She also states that she has been a commentator for the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR and Pacifica Radio. [2] [3]
In mid-2008, Cohn testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties concerning enhanced interrogation techniques (i.e. torture) and their legal status. [6]
Cohn has received the following awards: [2]
Cohn has authored or co-authored books, including:
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal was an ad hoc court located in The Hague, Netherlands.
Serbia and Montenegro, known until 2003 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, FR Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The country bordered Hungary to the north, Romania to the northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, North Macedonia to the south, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the west, and Albania to the southwest. The state was founded on 27 April 1992 as a federation comprising the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro. In February 2003, it was transformed from a federal republic to a political union until Montenegro seceded from the union in June 2006, leading to the full independence of both Serbia and Montenegro.
Louise Arbour, is a Canadian lawyer, prosecutor and jurist.
Milan Milutinović was a Serbian politician who served as the president of Serbia from 1997 to 2002.
Milan Babić was a Croatian Serb politician and war criminal who served as the first president of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, a self-proclaimed state largely populated by Serbs of Croatia that wished to break away from Croatia during the Croatian War of Independence.
The Republic of Serbian Krajina or Serb Republic of Krajina, known as the Serbian Krajina or simply Krajina, was a self-proclaimed Serb proto-state, a territory within the newly independent Republic of Croatia, which it defied, and which was active during the Croatian War of Independence (1991–95). It was not recognized internationally. The name Krajina ("Frontier") was adopted from the historical Military Frontier of the Habsburg monarchy (Austria-Hungary), which had a substantial Serb population and existed up to the late 19th century. The RSK government waged a war for ethnic Serb independence from Croatia and unification with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska.
The Bosnian genocide refers to either the Srebrenica massacre or the wider crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing campaign throughout areas controlled by the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) during the Bosnian War of 1992–1995. The events in Srebrenica in 1995 included the killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, as well as the mass expulsion of another 25,000–30,000 Bosniak civilians by VRS units under the command of General Ratko Mladić.
Milan Martić is a Croatian Serb politician and war criminal who served as the president of the unrecognized Republic of Serbian Krajina between 1994 and 1995, during the Croatian War of Independence.
The political status of Kosovo, also known as the Kosovo question, is the subject of a long-running political and territorial dispute between the Serbian government and the Government of Kosovo, stemming from the breakup of Yugoslavia (1991–92) and the ensuing Kosovo War (1998–99). In 1999, the administration of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija was handed on an interim basis to the United Nations under the terms of UNSCR 1244 which ended the Kosovo conflict of that year. That resolution reaffirmed the territorial integrity of Serbia over Kosovo but required the UN administration to promote the establishment of 'substantial autonomy and self-government' for Kosovo pending a 'final settlement' for negotiation between the parties.
The Republic of Serbia was a constituent state of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between 1992 and 2003 and the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro from 2003 to 2006. With Montenegro's secession from the union with Serbia in June 2006, both became sovereign states in their own right for the first time in nearly 88 years.
The Dalj massacre was the killing of 56 or 57 Croats in Dalj, Croatia on 1 August 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence. In addition to civilian victims, the figure includes 20 Croatian policemen, 15 Croatian National Guard troops and four civil defencemen who had been defending the police station and water supply building in the village. While some of the policemen and the ZNG troops died in combat, those who surrendered were killed after they became prisoners of war. They tried to fight off an attack by the Croatian Serb SAO Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia Territorial Defence Forces, supported by the Yugoslav People's Army and the Serb Volunteer Guard paramilitaries. The SAO SBWS was declared an autonomous territory in eastern Croatia following the Battle of Borovo Selo just to the south of Dalj.
Florence Hartmann is a French journalist and author. During the 1990s she was a correspondent in the Balkans for the French newspaper Le Monde. In 1999 she published her first book, Milosevic, la diagonale du fou, reissued by Gallimard in 2002. From October 2000 until October 2006 she was official spokesperson and Balkan adviser to Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
Slobodan Milošević was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician who was the president of Serbia from 1989 to 1997 and president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000. Formerly a high-ranking member of the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) during the 1980s, he led the Socialist Party of Serbia from its foundation in 1990 until his death in 2006.
Serbia was involved in the Yugoslav Wars, which took place between 1991 and 1999—the war in Slovenia, the war in Croatia, the war in Bosnia, and Kosovo. From 1991 to 1997, Slobodan Milošević was the President of Serbia. Serbia was part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has established that Milošević was in control of Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia during the wars which were fought there from 1991 to 1995.
O-Gon Kwon is a noted international South Korean judge, best known for being one of the three judges in the trial of Slobodan Milošević. He also sat on the bench for the trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić.
Sir Geoffrey Nice KC is a British barrister and judge. He took part in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and was lead prosecutor at Slobodan Milošević's trial. He is chair of the China Tribunal and the Uyghur Tribunal, which have investigated human rights abuses in China.
David Anthony Hunt was an Australian judge who served on the Supreme Court of New South Wales, where he was the Chief Judge at Common Law, and the Judicial Commission of New South Wales. Subsequent to his retirement in 1998, Justice Hunt joined the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Gabrielle Louise McIntyre served as his legal adviser at the ICTY.
The war crimes trial of Slobodan Milošević, the former President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) lasted for just over four years from 2002 until his death in 2006. Milošević faced 66 counts of crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes committed during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Smilja Avramov was a Serbian academician, legal scholar, social activist and educator in international law. She was a member of the Senate of Republika Srpska from 1996 to 2009. Before she retired she was a Professor of International law at the Law Faculty at Belgrade University.
The partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina was discussed and attempted during the 20th century. The issue came to prominence during the Bosnian War, which also involved Bosnia and Herzegovina's largest neighbors, Croatia and Serbia. As of 2023, the country remains one state while internal political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina based on the 1995 Dayton Agreement remain in place.