1

Women's lives in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Then, now and in the future.

Tuesday 25 February 2014

Women for Women International provides women survivors of conflict with the tools and resources to move

from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency. Our work began in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993 in

the midst of war and we have since supported over 60,000 Bosnian women. Our programme aims to ensure

that women are well, that they are decision makers, and that they have access to social networks and safety

nets, and that they can sustain an income (through small businesses assistance and job-skills training). Over

20 years and across 8 conflict affected countries, we have helped almost 400,000 women transform their lives

from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency.

Event summary

2014 is a crucial year for women’s rights in conflict where sexual based violence is pervasive. In June 2014,

the UK will convene a world summit on preventing sexual violence in conflict marking the culmination of two

years of intensive efforts to “bring the world to the point of no return, creating irreversible momentum

towards ending warzone rape and sexual violence worldwide” (UK Foreign Secretary William Hague).

This parliamentary briefing was hosted by Lord Mitchell and Women for Women International (WfWI) to

provide an opportunity to hear from WfWI’s 20 years of experience and other expert speakers in order to

explore the realities for Bosnian women then, now and in the future. Looking at the contexts of both

European integration and the women, peace and security agenda, this briefing sought to identify lessons,

opportunities, challenges and ways forward to support Bosnian women, their families and their communities.

Materials from the day are available on our website (www.womenforwomen.org.uk).

------

Lord Mitchell and Brita Fernandez Schmidt (Executive Director, WfWI UK) welcomed the speakers and the

audience to the event and highlighted the importance of both the briefing and continuing efforts to keep the

conflict on the agenda so that the world does not forget about what happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina

(B&H) not only for Bosnians but also the lessons that it provides for the wider women, peace and security

agenda.

Jane Corbin, Senior Correspondent for the BBC’s Panorama moderated the event. She first reported from

Srebrenica when it was designated a ‘safe haven’ (1993) and documented the efforts of Lord Owen and

Thorvald Stoltenberg (UN co-chair of the steering committee of the International Conference on the former

Yugoslavia) to mediate for peace. She reported on the massacre at Srebrenica and received an Emmy

nomination for her on-the-ground investigations and witness interviews which provided evidence for the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

The Rt Hon. the Lord Owen CH FRCP, EU Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the Former

Yugoslavia and author of ‘Bosnia-Herzegovina: The Vance/Owen Peace Plan. Lord Owen recounted

experiences from 1995 and the desperation felt by the international community and Bosnians to stop the

bloodshed which should have ended in May 1993 but dragged out to 1995. Without defending Dayton as a

perfect document, it was a means to an end and was signed on a knife edge with talks almost breaking down

within the last half hour before signature. Since 1995, and despite internal problems, it is clear that the

majority of Bosnians want to keep the country together and believes that if those sentiments could be

channelled then the artificial separation within B&H could be ended. The structure of B&H has to change for

2

the country and people to prosper and that this can happen through small changes (such as the current

protests). It is the youth who can cut the cords of history and women who can cut the cords of division.

B&H is not just a ‘European’ issue, the USA made commitments which it should account for and fulfil and not

escape responsibility.

Seida Saric, Country Director for WfWI B&H since 1994. During the conflict, around 1.5 million people were

forced to leave their homes and around 100,000 people were killed. She initially felt that the estimates for

rape survivors were around 20,000 but now – after 20 years of working with Bosnian women survivors of the

conflict – believes it would be closer to the upper estimate of 50,000. B&H is almost two independent entities

(Federation B&H and Republika Srpska) and the Brčko District with 15 governments (10 Cantons, 2 Entities,

the Brčko District, and State Level Government). She highlighted the importance of B&H awaiting the final

results of its first census since before the conflict.

WfWI was founded by Zainab Salbi after she visited women in B&H during the conflict and arranged for

‘sisters’ in the USA who provided support to women survivors of conflict to rebuild their lives both financially

as well as personally through exchanging letters. Ms Saric highlighted the significant impact both personal

(through the exchanging of letters) and financial had for Bosnian women.

WfWI initially began by solely working with survivors of sexual violence but broadened out to all women to

prevent survivors being stigmatised and because the need was so great. As the work was developing, WfWI

invested time and energy in understanding the real needs of women and also ran a microcredit programme

between 1997 and 2012. More than 60,000 women received financial support and more than 40,000 women

were directly supported through the WfWI core economic empowerment programme.

A key lesson that WfWI has learnt over the last 20 years is that supporting women in the initial post-conflict

period is extremely important. In B&H, WfWI has witnessed the impact that investing in and supporting

women in that critical moment has had for them, their families and communities. Women invest the

resources by building better future to their family, particularly their children. Over the years, graduates of

WfWI’s Bosnian programme have formed over 30 community based women’s groups or networks, who WfWI

B&H continues to work with.

Looking ahead, Ms Saric felt that teaching women about democracy is crucial for a brighter future for B&H.

The country moved from socialism, to conflict to democracy without citizenship education and there

continues to be a lack of awareness about how people can affect change and hold leaders to account.

Dr Cynthia Cockburn (City University London and author of ‘Women organising for change: post-war Bosnia).

In 1995, she began working with Medica Women's Therapy Centre in Zenica, an organisation that had formed

as a result of women working together to organise mutual assistance. Medica was one of many women’s

organisations who emerged the immediate aftermath of the conflict as did Infoteka of Zenica, Zene Zenama

of Sarajevo, Lara of Bil-yelina, Viva Zene of Tuzla, Udruzene Zene of Banja Luka, and UZBH of Mostar. Zene

Zenama was highlighted as an example of women’s activism in B&H – they provide education and capacity-

building; provide research; lobby for the introduction and effective implementation of legislation as well as

CEDAW implementation; and mobilise supporters around campaigns to stop violence against women.

Dr Cockburn had recently been to Sarajevo where the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

had facilitated a meeting between women activists from Syria and B&H. The key lesson from B&H was that

women’s exclusion at Dayton resulted in a state, constitution and administrative structure in B&H that is

ineffective and specifically unresponsive to women’s needs. It is generally incapable of providing the

minimum of economic security and social wellbeing for ordinary Bosnians which disproportionately affects

widows, female headed households and girls vulnerable to sexual exploitation. The cost of this for Bosnian

women was visible in the contemporary protests on the streets of Sarajevo where women’s groups were part

of a larger civil society effort to re-shape B&H.

3

Dr Oleg Levitin (Senior Political Counsellor at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and

participant of the Dayton Peace Talks). One of the lessons that EBRD learned during 20 years of transition is

that progress can be hollow unless it is built on solid institutional foundations, which imply, among other

things, inclusiveness. Excluding population groups from access to labour markets and finance is not only

unfair - it wastes economic and human resources. EBRD has recently adopted a Gender Initiative, which

should enable supporting economic inclusion of women more systematically. Part of this effort is the Women

in Business programme, which started working in B&H in 2012.

In his capacity of a Balkans expert who studied the region for more than 25 years and as a direct participant

of the international effort to settle the Yugoslav crisis in the 1990s, Dr Levitin offered a few observations from

a personal perspective. While hailing the efforts of WfWI and all international institutions trying to improve

the position of women in B&H, he questioned the possibility to effectively deliver on economic and political

inclusion of women within the system that is not efficient and not fully democratic. He compared the well-

known Sejdic-Finci case related to the position of ethnic minorities in B&H with the position of women in

B&H. The ethnic-based limitations on electoral rights of minorities are as appalling as the fact that there is

not a single woman in the central Government of B&H or that the gender pay gap in B&H exceeds 20%. But

Seidic-Finci case is only one element, which has attracted international attention, in the unfair and

anachronistic system based on ethnic lines. To an extent not only minorities, but the so-called ‘constituent

people’ of B&H are also discriminated against. The current constitutional set up of B&H, which has remained

unreformed for years, is dysfunctional and unsustainable.

Dr Levitin concluded that without a comprehensive reform of the entire constitutional set-up of B&H a more

efficient and democratic state, which is only able to provide full inclusiveness to women, ethnic minorities,

young people, inhabitants of underdeveloped regions and other excluded groups of population, will be

difficult to achieve.

Dr Lara Nettelfield (Royal Holloway, University of London, author of ‘Courting Democracy in Bosnia and

Herzegovina: The Hague Tribunal's Impact in a Postwar State’ and co-author of ‘Srebrenica in the Aftermath

of Genocide’). She highlighted that international precedents on sexual violence were significantly aided by

the courage of Bosnian women who spoke about their experiences.

In 1995, Ms S. Kadić filed a case in New York courts against wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić

under the 1789 US Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act with help from feminist law

Professor Catherine MacKinnon (University of Michigan) along with several women’s NGOs. Kadić alleged

that Karadžić was responsible for various atrocities including brutal acts of rape, forced prostitution, forced

impregnation, torture and summary execution. These acts were carried out by Bosnian Serb military forces

as part of a genocidal campaign. The Kadić case garnered international attention and the District Court for

the Southern District of New York combined it with another case (Doe v. Karadžić) and, in August 2000, found

in favour of the plaintiffs and awarded $745 million in damages (and $4.5 billion in the case of Doe v.

Karadžić). Although the financial award was largely symbolic given the numerous obstacles to gaining access

to the defendant’s assets, this decision was nonetheless a major victory.

In part due to the grassroots work of Bosnian women, international precedent was also set through the

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Prijedor-based judge, Nusreta Sivac, and

prosecutor Jadranka Cigelj, two of 37 women interned at Omarska prison camp near Prijedor and both victims

of sexual violence, encouraged women to share their horrific stories. They collected testimonies of Bosnian

women and put them in legal dossiers. Those testimonies were handed over to ICTY investigators and, in

June 1995, they travelled to The Hague to take part in the drafting of the first indictment to include sexual

violence. The ICTY went onto set the precedents in the areas of: mass rape and sexual enslavement as a

crime against humanity; rape as a form of torture; sexual violence against men; and the link between rape

and ethnic cleansing. More than 70 individuals (of 161) have been charged with sexual violence at the ICTY.

Over thirty have been convicted. Despite the international precedent, B&H domestic progress has been slow

and many issues have been raised by Bosnian NGO TRIAL (Track Impunity Always) to the CEDAW Committee

(see the Q& A summary below).

4

Dr Nettelfield concluded by saying that the issue of survivor rights is not only a “gender” issue, but an issue

of citizenship. How vulnerable people are treated by country illustrates the values of countries and how we

approach them as representatives of donor nations says a lot about our values as well.

----Q&A Summary----

One of the factors of the Dayton agreement was the development of a rigid Constitution without a built-in

review system. Instruments such as Constitutions can and should be developed as living documents. Given

the fragile environment for the peace agreement, civil society inclusion in the peace talks was lacking. As a

lesson, civil society should have been included from the outset during the negotiations leading up to Dayton.

In addition, reconciliation in B&H was not entirely successful. This is partly seen by ongoing and outstanding

court cases through the ICTY and now still going on at the Bosnian national court (almost 20 years later).

Dayton was a way to stop the war and prevent resumption of armed hostilities, but it was not a blueprint for

building an efficient and democratic state. South Africa has useful lessons (i.e. the Truth and Reconciliation

Commission) and there will always be issues between justice and peace and reconciliation.

Whether or not B&H needs a ‘Dayton 2’ was discussed with advantages being addressing the issues caused

by ‘Dayton 1’ in 1995 and overcoming the current impasse that stems from lack of consensus between the

local political and ethnic leaders regarding the optimal organisation of the state and their lack of shared vision

for the future. Challenges for a Dayton 2 would be, among other things, the lack of appetite on the part of

the key international stakeholders, including US and EU, to engage as heavily as they did in 1995. Role of

other regional players like Croatia and Serbia should also be considered particularly in terms of their ongoing

or desired integration into EU.

Lessons for women’s groups and civil society in Egypt and Syria: similar issues around cultural attitudes

towards rape and stigma and honour killings. It was the Bosnian women themselves who decided that they

had to take the risk and demonstrate the courage by reporting what was being done to them. Survivors who

initially reported their abuse then paved the way and helped to provide a safe environment for other

survivors to speak out. In addition, religious leaders in B&H sent a ruling defending women and enforcing

that they were not to be blamed and that this was something that affected men and women. Women

professors also spoke out about the issue.

Regarding opportunities for Bosnian women around the preventing sexual violence in conflict world summit

in June, it could provide an opportunity to highlight issues and lessons and crucial to have women

representatives at events as well as feed it into wider, national efforts around women, peace and security

(particularly national action plans) for the UK, B&H and other countries as well. Dr Nettelfield highlighted

some of the specific issues for Bosnian civil society groups outlined in TRIAL’s recent reports that could be

highlighted in June:

• The Court of B&H is now responsible for prosecuting the gravest violations of international humanitarian

law and genocide. Sexual violence is also prosecuted at entity and district level courts. Bosnian courts

currently do not keep statistics relating to the number of cases relating to sexual violence. At lower level

courts, rape has been prosecuted as a crime (not a war crime);

• The legal definition of rape in B&H is inconsistent with international standards and definitions within

entity and district levels of B&H are inconsistent with state-level laws;

• The current Republika Srpska Law on Protection of Civilian Victims of War does not recognize victims of

sexual violence as a separate category;

• The 2010 commitment to establish a ‘national program for women victims of sexual violence in conflict

and beyond’ is yet to be implemented;

• The National Strategy on Transitional Justice, the Law on Victims of Torture and the new draft law on

Free Legal Aid are all yet to be adopted;

• Survivors of sexual violence continue to face significant challenges in accessing health care and housing

and their children lack guaranteed access to education.

5

------

The impact of Women for Women International’s work in Bosnia and Herzegovina

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, almost half the population is unemployed and women represent over 60% of the

inactive labour force and unemployment around economically active women is almost 42%. Only 8% of

businesses are owned by women and the average age a girl leaves school is 14 years. The discrimination that

women face is pervasive, including in their economic lives despite a plethora of legislation and institutions.

WfWI does not have all the answers to address this gap but we believe that the proven success of our

approach can be part of it:

• Bosnian women graduates (2012) reported earning an average of £1.47 a day compared to 95p at the

beginning of the 12 month programme;

• 98% of these graduates also had good knowledge of their rights (compared to 61% at enrolment);

• We have seen a large and consistent increase in WfWI graduates who report educating another woman

on her rights from 7% at enrolment, to 19% at graduation to 74% 1 year post-graduation and 84% 2 years

post-graduation.

In keeping with over 20 years of delivering transformative services for Bosnian women, WfWI is seeking to

provide a holistic set of training programmes in 2014 that build women’s economic self-sufficiency as well as

strengthen their capacity to participate in civic affairs. Specific projects include our integrated 12-month

programme that combines life skills and rights awareness education with vocational training and small

business start-up support; market-based technical training in the production of medicinal and herbal plants,

and beekeeping; as well as mentoring and nurturing women’s associations established by graduates to

conduct group businesses and advocacy.

Women for Women International UK

32-36 Loman Street, London SE1 0EH www.womenforwomen.org.uk

Charity Registration No: 1115109 Company Registration No: 05650155

Afghanistan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan