The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), established by the UN in 1993 and operating until 2017, prosecuted perpetrators of war crimes in the Yugoslav conflicts. Major convictions included:

• Slobodan Milošević: Serbian leader, the principal architect of Greater Serbia. Tried for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Died in 2006 during his trial, before judgment.
• Radovan Karadžić: Bosnian Serb political leader. Convicted of genocide for Srebrenica and other crimes; sentenced to life imprisonment.
• Ratko Mladić: Bosnian Serb military commander. Convicted of genocide for Srebrenica and other crimes; sentenced to life imprisonment.

The ICTY established important legal precedents, including the recognition that mass rape can be a war crime and an instrument of genocide. It also produced the first conviction for genocide in a European court since Nuremberg.

VIII. Recent and Ongoing Human Rights Cases

Darfur

Darfur is a region of western Sudan. Beginning in 2003, rebel groups representing African ethnic groups in Darfur began an insurgency against the Sudanese government, dominated by Arab elites. The government responded by arming Arab militias (the Janjaweed) and conducting a systematic campaign against Darfur's civilian population. Approximately 300,000 to 400,000 people died, and approximately 2.7 million were displaced.

The U.S. government formally characterized Darfur as genocide in 2004, the first time a sitting administration had applied that label to an ongoing conflict. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2009 (the first ICC warrant against a sitting head of state). Al-Bashir was overthrown in 2019 and detained in Sudan, though he has not been transferred to the ICC. Sudan has been in further civil war since 2023.

Rohingya genocide (Myanmar)

The Rohingya are a Muslim minority in Myanmar (Burma), a Buddhist-majority country. They have been systematically persecuted for decades, stripped of citizenship by the 1982 Citizenship Law. In 2017, the Myanmar military conducted a brutal campaign against Rohingya communities in Rakhine State, burning villages, killing thousands, and systematically using mass rape. Approximately 750,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh, joining hundreds of thousands of earlier refugees. The UN has characterized the Myanmar military's actions as genocide. The International Court of Justice is hearing a case against Myanmar brought by The Gambia under the Genocide Convention.

Uyghur persecution (China)

The Uyghurs are a predominantly Muslim Turkic ethnic group in China's western Xinjiang region. Since approximately 2017, the Chinese government has implemented an extensive campaign of repression, including:

• Mass detention of perhaps one million Uyghurs in "re-education camps"
• Family separation, including forced removal of children from their parents
• Pervasive surveillance
• Forced labor
• Coercive birth control measures including forced sterilization
• Destruction of mosques and cultural sites
• Restrictions on Islamic religious practice

The U.S. government, several European parliaments, and the UK Parliament have characterized these actions as genocide or crimes against humanity. China denies the allegations. The case raises difficult questions about whether and how international institutions can respond to alleged genocide by a permanent member of the UN Security Council.