Date: Tuesday 18th June 2019

Cost: the conference is fully funded by Remembering Srebrenica Scotland so there is no charge for attending. Refreshments and lunch are provided.

Booking: please email robinm@srebrenica.scot to reserve a place, or book tickets on Eventbrite

School groups are welcomed.

Venue Harris Academy Perth Road Dundee DD2 1NL


Purpose of the Conference Remembering Srebrenica Scotland was established as a charity in 2015. It organises commemoration events to mark the acts of genocide in Bosnia in the 1990s. Through raising awareness of this period of history, the charity hopes to build safer communities by learning the lessons of what happened and why.

This conference is therefore aimed at pupils in S4, S5 and S6 who are interested in learning more about what happened at Srebrenica. It will have particular appeal to pupils who would like to go on to read History, International Relations, Politics and Law (or similar disciplines) at university.

 

Time Agenda

0930 Arrival and morning refreshments

1000 Welcome address: Very Rev Dr Lorna Hood, Chair of Remembering Srebrenica Scotland

1010 ‘War in the Former Yugoslavia: an overview’ Robin Macpherson

1045 Break

1100 ‘The Srebrenica Genocide’ Robert McNeil

1140 ‘Source analysis: dissecting propaganda’

1220 Lunch

1300 ‘Dealing with those responsible – justice in the international courts’ –John Clark

1340 ‘The international response to the Bosnian war (and why it still matters)’ –Marsaili Fraser

1420 Plenary – Very Rev Dr Lorna Hood

 

Conference Presenters

John Clark is a forensic pathologist based in Glasgow with 30 plus years of practice in Scotland and England. He has used that expertise to assist various international organisations and individuals around the world, including an appointment as Chief Pathologist for the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in its work in the Balkans, examining the victims of war crimes in Srebrenica, northern Bosnia and Croatia, and later testifying in the courts in The Hague in the trials of major figures charged with these offences. In recent years, he has been involved in a range of work for the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Marsaili Fraser is a board member of RSS. She worked with various international organisations in Bosnia on peace implementation from 2000 until 2016. She was head of the political department in the office of the EU Special Representative in Bosnia, seconded by the UK government, and was a political advisor to Lord Paddy Ashdown when he was High Representative in Sarajevo. She has published work on post-war politics in the Balkans, and holds degrees from the University of Oxford, the Central European University and the European University Institute. She is currently working on a comparative study of power-sharing in Bosnia and Northern Ireland.

Registered Charity (SCIO) Number SC046540

Very Rev Dr Lorna Hood OBE retired recently after 37 years as a Church of Scotland Minister. Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 2013 to 2014, and an Honorary Chaplain to the Queen since 2010. After a trip to Srebrenica in 2014, Lorna agreed to set up and Chair the Remembering Srebrenica Scottish Board. She was awarded a ‘Point of Light’ by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015 for her work with the charity and subsequently in 2017 was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. In November 2017 Lorna was appointed Independent Chairperson of Youthlink Scotland Board.

Robin Macpherson is a board member of RSS and chairs the Education Committee. He has been involved with the charity since 2016 when he first visited Bosnia and has since taken pupil trips to Sarajevo and Srebrenica. He is an Assistant Rector and History teacher at Dollar Academy, and speaks and writes about education. He was Content Director of the Telegraph Festival of Education, and is organising researchED Scotland 2018. He co-authored “What does this look like in the classroom? Bridging the gap between research and practice” and writes textbooks for Cambridge University Press.

Robert McNeil MBE is a board member of RSS. In 1996 he joined the first international forensic team in his capacity as a forensic technician. He travelled to Bosnia to help gather evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide on behalf of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. He was deployed to Bosnia and Kosovo numerous times between 1996 and 2002, working mainly with victims found in mass graves. He has also worked in Ireland, Sierra Leone and in Thailand following the SE Asia tsunami. His last deployment before retiring in 2009 was to France, helping identify WW1 British and Australian soldiers buried in mass graves. He took up painting and has exhibited his work throughout the UK, including in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly.