In memoriam - Vojin Dimitrijevic - Beogradski centar za ljudska prava

Professor Vojin Dimitrijević, Yugoslav Human Rights activist,Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur, and Doctor of Laws honoris causa ofthe University of Kent, died in Belgrade on the fifth of October at theage of 81. Vojin, a close friend since Kent hosted him at the conference‘Issues of Identity in Contemporary Yugoslavia’ in August 1992, wasDirector of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights and a key figurein mobilising the forces of law against the violence of the regime ofSlobodan Milošević.Vojin, a professor of law at Belgrade University in 1998 when thegovernment imposed a ‘Law of Universities’ enabling it to purgeindependent researchers and critics of the state, joined colleagues instriking, was suspended, and, when reinstated, retired. At that pointhe was able to commit himself fully to the Belgrade Centre, whichhe had established in 1995, and led it in its campaigns to educate thepublic in democracy, rights and the rule of law and to resist humanrights violations in Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro. Vojin authoredand coauthored numerous books and textbooks on internationallaw and human rights and published more than 250 articles inSerbian and English. At the time of his death friends and family werecommenting on the irony that the fifth of October was the twelfthanniversary of the resignation of Milošević, a resignation forced bymass demonstrations against his rule.Vojin became a member of the Council of Europe’s VeniceCommission in 2000, joined the Permanent Court of Arbitration inthe Hague in 2001, and was a commissioner on, and then a memberof the board of directors of, the International Commission of Jurists.In July 2002 Kent made Vojin, who had worked closely with ProfessorJohn Groom and myself, a Doctor of Civil Law.