Political science professors Kimi King and James Meernik are leading a survey sponsored by the United Nations to study the impact of war on victims and witnesses of war crimes. The survey is from interviews and court testimonial experiences of victims and witnesses from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the U.N.'s first international tribunal for war crime trials.

The study examines what it means to "bear witness" before transnational tribunals and assesses how individuals are coping, if not healing, physically, mentally and socially since the peace accords in the 1990s.

King and Meernik, experts on human rights, criminal tribunals, transitional justice and post-conflict security, began the work in July 2013. The preliminary findings were presented to top-level tribunal officials at The Hague, Netherlands, last summer.