The UN rights chief on Tuesday hailed a ruling by war crimes judges upholding a life sentence for former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Michelle Bachelet welcomed the decision by the UN tribunal in The Hague, which rejected Mladic's appeal against his 2017 life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.
Bachelet's comments came in a joint statement with Alice Wairimu Nderitu, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' special advisor on the prevention of genocide.
Tuesday's ruling "highlights the determination of the international justice system to ensure accountability no matter how long it may take -- in Mladic's case, nearly three decades after he committed his appalling crimes", Bachelet said.
Dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia", Mladic was the military face of a brutal trio led on the political side by ex-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
The 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which some 8,000 mostly Muslim men and boys were killed in cold blood when Bosnian Serb troops overran the town, was Europe's worst act of bloodshed since World War II.
"The decision to uphold Mladic's convictions by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, as well as his sentence of life imprisonment, provides historical certainty and finality for victims and survivors," Nderitu said in the statement.
"It also sends a hugely important message throughout the Western Balkans where we see genocide denial and the glorification of convicted criminals such as Mladic not only persisting but increasing."
In their statement, Bachelet and Nderitu urged officials and the press to "refrain from revisionist narratives, divisive rhetoric and incitement to hatred".
"Mladic's crimes were the abhorrent culmination of hatred stoked for political gain. Today's decision is about his individual responsibility for his dreadful acts, not about collective punishment or apportioning guilt to any particular community," Bachelet said.