Responsibility of the Netherlands for the Genocide in Srebrenica: The Nuhanović and Mothers of Srebrenica Cases Compared

Abstract

This article compares the recent judgment of the District Court in The Hague in the case of the Mothers of Srebrenica Association et al. v. the Netherlands (“Mothers of Srebrenica”) with the judgments of the Dutch Supreme Court of last year in the cases of Mustafić and Nuhanović v. the State of the Netherlands. In both cases the Dutch courts had to address the question of attribution—can you attribute the acts of the Dutch un peacekeepers to the Netherlands? And the Dutch courts needed to assess the wrongfulness of the conduct of the Dutch peacekeepers.