In Slovenia, at the end of World War II, there were violent confrontations with opponents of the communist regime and massacres of members of the Slovene Home Guard returned by the British to Yugoslavia from Carinthia, Austria, where they took refuge in the last days of the war, hoping to be protected by allied forces.
At the beginning and during the war, certain regulations in international law criminalized such an act. Important are the 1899 Hague Convention (II) and the 1907 Hague Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, as well as the 1929 Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. From the customary international law perspective, the Martens clause, which stipulates that in cases, not covered by the provisions of the conventions, there is nevertheless protection, and the rule of international law, as is customary among civilized nations, laws of humanity, and public conscience. At that time, the 1944 Decree on Military Courts was also in force in Slovenia, which, according to the Constitutional Court RS, is invalid in some parts due to its conflict with basic principles at the time of its creation. However, this does not mean that it is completely unlawful.
The principles of international law deriving from the judgment of the Nuremberg Court were confirmed by the UN General Assembly, which recognized the principles of universal validity and thus gave them the force of customary international law. The objection to the prohibition of the retroactive application of law in the case of the drafting of the Nuremberg Statute was rejected on the ground that the Statute merely systematically collected the norms in force at the time from the conventions and rules of customary international law.
Due to the nature of the political system, prosecution of perpetrators of post-war massacres was not expected in Slovenia until its independence. After the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the creation of the democratic Republic of Slovenia, there was a shift in the detection and investigation of alleged crimes. Slovenia is bound to, inter alia, by the conventions to which it is a party. There was certainly a legal basis for punishing the crimes, which was also confirmed by the Slovenian courts, but after only three charges, no one was convicted due to lack of evidence. Despite the existence of a legal basis, there was no consistent and systematic prosecution in Slovenia due to the lack of political interest.
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