
The member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation supported the resolution proposed by the United Nations to declare July 11 as the International Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide.
The statement, which expresses support for the adoption of the resolution, was delivered at the two-day meeting of member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which ended on Sunday in the Gambian capital, Banjul.
57 member countries of the Organization voted for its approval, in which Bosnia and Herzegovina has observer status. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation is the largest organization after the United Nations, and its members include countries from four continents.
The final proposal for the resolution on Srebrenica was sent to the president of the UN General Assembly, Dennis Francis, and all permanent missions to the UN, Bosnia's ambassador to the UN, Zlatko Llagumxhija, announced on May 2.
The UN Security Council scheduled a debate on Bosnia and Herzegovina for May 15, but it was not announced what the specific topic will be, nor who will hold the session.
The final draft of the resolution, seen by Radio Free Europe, highlights the UN's decision to declare July 11 as the International Day of Remembrance of the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide, which will be observed annually. In Srebrenica, Bosnian Serb forces killed over 8,000 Muslim men and boys in July 1995.
The International Court of Justice characterized this crime as genocide in 2007. More than 50 people were convicted of it by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and domestic courts, with a total of about 700 years in prison.
The then commander of the Republika Srpska army, Ratko Mladić, and the then leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadžić, were sentenced to life imprisonment for the genocide in Srebrenica and other crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.