Today, the Srebrenica Memorial Center presented the annual Report on Genocide Denial and Dehumanization of Bosniaks, which documents cases of genocide denial, glorification of convicted war criminals, and dehumanizing speech in the public space of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region. The report notes an increase in the number of cases of genocide denial compared to last year.
The director of the Memorial Center, Emir Suljagić, said that the aim of the report is to establish a continuous archive of public speech about Srebrenica that will be available to researchers, journalists and the public, pointing out that the Memorial Center has been systematically monitoring and documenting genocide denial for the sixth year.
“We are doing this in order to establish an archive of speeches about Srebrenica in our public life. Whatever winds are blowing at the moment, they will pass, but it will remain recorded who and what was said about Srebrenica 30 years after the genocide,” emphasized Suljagić, among other things.
Monitoring coordinator Edin Ikanović presented the key findings of the report, stating that in 2026, 149 cases of genocide denial were recorded, compared to 99 cases a year earlier.
According to the report, the most common forms of denial are still direct denial and relativization of genocide, while an increase in content showing support for people convicted of war crimes has also been recorded.
“The findings of the report show that compared to the previous year, when we had 99 cases of denial, that number has increased significantly and this report records 149 cases in which genocide is denied,” said Ikanović.
The most common forms of genocide denial, he added, are still active denial and relativization, and what we note in this year’s report is an increase in support for the perpetrators.
The analysis also identifies persons and media that, according to the methodology of the Memorial Center, appear most often in cases of genocide denial. Among them are some politicians from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, public figures and the media, including the news agency Srna and RTRS, which the authors of the report state represent important platforms for the transmission or promotion of such content.
One of the authors of the report, Jasmin Mujanović, said that this year’s analysis specifically deals with the international lobbying activities of the Republika Srpska authorities, primarily in the United States of America. According to him, the report indicates the connection of some of these activities with narratives that deny the genocide and represent Bosniaks through security and ideological threats.
He stated that the report analyzed publicly available lobbying contracts, media content and speeches of certain political and public actors in the USA, assessing that they represent part of a wider campaign that seeks to promote the political goals of the Republika Srpska government.
“In the report, we analyzed publicly available lobbying activities and the way in which they intertwine with narratives about denying the genocide and presenting Bosniaks in a negative context,” said Mujanović.
The editor of the report, Tarik Močević, stated that, despite the amendments to the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which criminalized the denial of genocide, the data do not show a trend of decreasing the number of such cases.
This year’s report, as he stated, pays special attention to the dehumanization of Bosniaks, which the authors analyze as an accompanying phenomenon of genocide denial, through public speeches by politicians, media content and other forms of public communication.
He noted that there were 240 cases in 2021, 681 in 2022, 90 in 2023, 305 in 2024, and 99 cases of genocide denial in 2025.
Speaking about the media part of the analysis, he stated that special attention was paid to reporting on the commemoration of the anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica, where, according to the findings of the report, part of the media in Republika Srpska devoted very little or no space to that topic, while some media published content that, according to the author, was in contradiction with the facts established by the court.
The authors of the report also assessed that the results of prosecuting crimes of denial of genocide and glorification of convicted war criminals are not proportional to the number of recorded cases, stating that during the past period several verdicts were passed, but also that some indictments were rejected.
As explained, the report is based on the monitoring of public space in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region, while social networks are not systematically covered due to the volume of content and the need for a special analysis methodology, Fena writes.
