Lack of effective investigations into war crimes committed during the Croatian Homeland War 

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Skendic and Krznaric v. Croatia (Application no. 16212/08)

Briefed on: September 16, 2022

The Skendzic and Krznaric v Croatia group of cases concern violations of the right to life on account of the lack of effective investigations into war crimes committed during the Croatian Homeland War (1991-1995) against the applicants’ next-of-kin who disappeared or were killed (violations of Article 2 in its procedural limb).

The ECtHR found the violation of Article 2 of the Convention on account of failings in the investigative procedures concerning the disappearance of applicants’ relatives.

The European Court found that the violations resulted from the following shortcomings in the impugned criminal investigations:  

-        lack of promptness: inexplicable delays in the investigations

-        lack of adequacy: the authorities’ failure to identify and bring the direct perpetrators to justice, as only the superior chain of command was prosecuted and convicted; the authorities’ failure to follow all available leads capable of identifying and bringing perpetrators to justice; examination of circumstances surrounding the killing of the applicants’ relatives remained at the level of a police inquiry

-        Lack of independence: investigations were entrusted to the police stations whose members were police officers suspected of being implicated in the events surrounding the disappearance or killing of the applicants’ relatives.

Human Rights House Zagreb and Documenta – Center for Dealing with the Past were actively involved in the process of the execution of the judgment. They have submitted rule 9.2 communications on two occasions on 6 May 2019 and on 14 September 2022.