AbstractsLaw & Legal Studies

Why were the UNHCR and the UNPROFOR unable to sustain the safe area of Srebrenica during the summer og 1995?

by Ibsen Nicolai AR




Institution: Roskilde University
Department:
Year: 2016
Keywords: Srebrenica; Safe area; UNHCR; UNPROFOR; Bosnian War; Balkan; Resolution; Discourse; Critical Discourse Analysis; Discourse-Historical Approach; International Law; United Nations; United Nations Security Council
Posted: 02/05/2017
Record ID: 2124907
Full text PDF: http://rudar.ruc.dk/handle/1800/26426


Abstract

In the summer of 1995 several thousand innocent people were killed in an attack by the Bosnian Serb paramilitary. Previous to this attack, in 1993, a resolution was created by the UN containing a message to the Bosnian Serb paramilitary to stop their actions and respect the UN and their protective forces on the ground, as well as the safe area of Srebrenica. Throughout the project report we argue that it is of outmost importance to acknowledge the use of language and power in such resolutions. Through the theoretical and methodological scope of Critical Discourse Analysis we investigate and analyse UN Resolution 819. We find that the discourse of Resolution 819 fails at the attempt to establish the actions of the Bosnian Serb paramilitary as illegal, and that the power relation between the UN and the Bosnian Serb paramilitary is equally not ratified. The project is created to show the importance of language in an international, globalised context and how discourses presented in this context potentially affects events in conflict zones around the globe. Advisors/Committee Members: Pace, Michelle (advisor).