Alumni Spotlight: Marko Karadzic ’05 LL.M.
Serbian Ministry for Human and Minority Rights
Marko Karadzic came of age as the Bosnian War raged near his native Serbia. Hearing news of the appalling human rights violations committed during the armed conflict made him realize that defending those rights was his calling.
“The situation in the former Yugoslavia forced me to think deeply about civil and human rights,” he said. “I decided I wanted to fight for what is just, for freedom and against discrimination.”
Karadzic joined the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights in 1998 as a program assistant. Established after the end of the conflict in 1995, the Centre promotes human rights and humanitarian law, and aids the development of democracy, the rule of law and civil society. He graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law in 2003.
Thanks to a Ron Brown Scholarship, established for the former commerce secretary who was killed in 1996 in a plane crash in Croatia, Karadzic was able to earn his LL.M. through Notre Dame’s Center for Civil and Human Rights.
“My experience at Notre Dame gave me a broader knowledge of international systems for defending human rights,” he said. “I had the chance to interact with and learn from people from all over the world. It was wonderful.”
After an internship with an international justice foundation in New York City and work in the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Karadzic took his sharpened skills and insights back home. Today, he is the state secretary of Serbia’s Ministry for Human and Minority Rights. Karadzic is helping his country build a system to defend civil and human rights. Among his priorities: combating discrimination, reducing poverty, and implementing recommendations from international bodies such as the United Nations and the European Union.
“When I represent my country before the UN or work to build public awareness about valuing human rights, I call upon what I learned at Notre Dame,” he said. “I’ve brought back what I learned, with the hope of making a difference in Serbia.”
