Judicial Body: UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women

Between 28 October and 5 November 2012 Ms. Rashida Manjoo, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences, conducted for the first time in the history of the mandate an official country mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).

 

The visit was prompted by a general allegation submitted in May 2011 by TRIAL (Swiss Association against Impunity) and 12 organizations from BiH dealing with the subject of rape or other forms of sexual violence during the war.1 The general allegation aimed at providing an analysis of the existing obstacles to the full implementation of BiH’s international obligations vis-à-vis victims of rape during the war, in particular: the inadequacy of existing criminal legislation dealing with rape; the high rate of impunity for perpetrators of rape or other forms of sexual violence during the war; the lack of adequate protection of witnesses and victims of these crimes as well as the failure to provide victims with integral reparation and prompt, fair and adequate compensation for the harm suffered.The associations subscribing to the general allegation expressly called on the Special Rapporteur to conduct a country visit to BiH to gather first hand information on the situation of women victims of rape during the war and to issue a set of comprehensive recommendations.

On 30 October 2012, Ms. Manjoo held a meeting with civil society in order to discuss the situation of women victims of sexual violence during the war. TRIAL attended the meeting, together with associations representing women from all the ethnic groups present in BiH, and highlighted the main issues contained in its general allegation.

At the end of the visit, Ms. Manjoo issued a press release containing some preliminary findings. With regard to women victims of sexual violence during the war, she declared that recent initiatives taken by national authorities could constitute a positive step forward but were nonetheless hampered by the high levels of fragmentation in legislative standards and the lack of coherence among implementing authorities that determines a concrete lack of redress for these women.

The Special Rapporteur affirmed that “it was crucial for government authorities at all levels to recognize the existence of civilian women victims of rape and torture, regardless of their ethnic or religious backgrounds, and to ensure that they have equal access to remedies and services, regardless of their physical location within the country”. She also encouraged BiH authorities to ensure that the specific forms of sexual violence and their high prevalence rates experienced by women are adequately taken into consideration when implementing any initiative to provide justice and effective remedies to victims. Ms. Manjoo reiterated that it was crucial that BiH recognizes the experiences that women faced during the war and their entitlement to justice, reparations, information and assistance on the issue of missing persons and victims of enforced disappearance.

The Special Rapporteur further noted that, while compensation and redress have not yet been guaranteed to women victims of sexual violence during the war, even access to forms of social protection remains severely limited by the lack of a homogenous social welfare system that guarantees equal access to resources and services throughout the country.

The Special Rapporteur highlighted that a prominent fear shared by many women survivors of war-time rape and torture that she met during her mission is the fact that time continues to pass by with no justice being served. In this sense, she indicated that “it was crucial to speed up efforts and achieve political solutions at State level”.

Finally, Ms. Manjoo recommended to BiH to promptly finalize the adoption of the Transitional Justice Strategy – stressing that it shall ensure the public acknowledgement and memorialization of women victims, their access to compensation, including non-material damages, and their empowerment – and of the Law on the Rights of Victims of Torture and Civilian Victims of War.

TRIAL will be actively engaged in the dissemination in BiH of the preliminary findings of the Special Rapporteur and will remain in direct contact with Ms. Manjoo to update her on all relevant developments in view of the release of the integral version of the report on the mission, which will be presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2013.

Overall Context

It is estimated that between 20,000 and 50,000 women were subjected to rape or other forms of sexual violence during the 1992-1995 war. In this context, rape was used as a means of implementing the strategy of ethnic cleansing and to increase inter-ethnic hatred. As of today, less than 100 people have been convicted for these crimes by national courts and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Impunity remains rampant. The existing legal framework in BiH does not allow victims of rape or other forms of sexual violence to obtain integral reparation and compensation for the harm suffered.

For more information:

  • See the integral version of the general allegation
  • See the executive summary of the general allegation
  • See the press release issued by the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women at the end of the visit
  • See the website of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women

As requested since May 2011 by TRIAL and other 12 local associations dealing with women victims of sexual violence from the 1992-1995 conflict, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Ms. Rashida Manjoo, will visit Bosnia-Herzegovina from 28 October to 5 November 2012. She will be able to meet with international organizations and representatives of civil society working with women victims of violence.

The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women was established in 1994 in order to enhance the efforts of the international community to eliminate violence against women.

TRIAL has been working in Bosnia since 2007 and is assisting more than 200 direct and indirect victims of the conflict to obtain justice and redress by submitting more than 80 individual communications in front of international human rights bodies.

In May 2011 TRIAL, together with 12 local associations dealing with women victims of sexual violence, submitted a general allegation to the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women highlighting the existing obstacles in the fulfilment of fundamental rights of women victims of sexual violence during the war. In their submission, TRIAL and its local partners specifically requested the Special Rapporteur to carry out a country visit.

During the country visit, the Special Rapporteur will meet with representatives of State’s authorities and institutions, international organizations, as well as representatives of civil society.

TRIAL welcomes this opportunity and plans on assisting the Special Rapporteur in its country visit in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in particular facilitating access to local organisations. The Special rapporteur’s report on the visit will be issued in March 2013 and presented to the Human Rights Council.

  • Click here to see the May 2011 general allegation sent by TRIAL to the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women.
  • Click here to see the official webpare of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women.

Sarajevo / Geneva 15 December 2011

In December 2011 TRIAL (Swiss Association against Impunity), seven associations of relatives of missing persons, five associations working on the subject of women victims of rape or other forms of sexual violence during the war and four associations or federations of associations of former concentration camp-detainees submitted a report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) to react to the second periodic report on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) that Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) presented on 17 November 2010.

At its 104th session (New York, 12 to 30 March 2012), a special task force within the HRC will study the periodic report of the State together with the information shared by TRIAL and its partner associations and it will formulate a “list of issues” on which it deems appropriate to request further information and explanations to BiH.

“The report highlights a number of matters on which the State did not comprehensively inform the HRC” said Ms. Lejla Mamut, the Human Rights Coordinator of TRIAL in Sarajevo. “Indeed, we do consider that these subjects are crucial in terms of full enforcement of BiH’s international obligations and we therefore call on the HRC to include specific matters, in particular related to the situation of relatives of missing persons, former camp-detainees and victims of sexual violence from the war, in the list of issues that it will submit to BiH”.

BiH will be then given some months to formulate its answer to the questions put forward by the HRC. The latter will analyse the replies and adopt its concluding observations and relevant recommendations between October and November 2012.

Ms. Selma Korjenić, TRIAL’s Human Rights Officer in charge of sexual violence for BiH indicated that “in the concluding observations on BiH that the HRC adopted in 2006, the State had already been recommended to take effective measures with regard to the mentioned categories of people. Unfortunately, it does not appear that much has been done to implement the previous recommendations. It is therefore of the utmost importance to provide extensive information to the HRC, expressing the view-point of civil society and giving voice to those that are usually left behind”.

The report submitted to the HRC thoroughly analyses the situation of relatives of missing persons, former camp-detainees and victims of sexual violence from the war, pointing out how their basic rights, enshrined and guaranteed in the ICCPR, continue being violated more than 16 years after the conclusion of the conflict. Furthermore, a number of questions considered to be crucial to understand what the State has done or is planning to do in order to address this situation are spelled out, in the hope that the HRC will reproduce those questions and submit them to BiH.

“The report formulates almost 50 questions on which we would like to learn the position of the State. Nevertheless, they could easily be summarised: how and when does BiH plan to finally guarantee relatives of missing persons, victims of sexual violence and former camp-detainees their right to know the truth, to justice and to redress?”, concluded Ms. Lejla Mamut and Ms. Selma Korjenić.

Ultimately, BiH owes the answer to this question to the international community, but even before that, to the whole BiH society.

Overall Context 

It is estimated that around 100,000 persons died as a consequence of the conflict in BiH during the period 1992-1995 and that between 25,000 and 30,000 were victims of enforced disappearance. As of today, between 10,000 and 13,000 people are still missing. During the war the use of rape or other forms of sexual violence was widespread (rates of victims of sexual violence vary from 20,000 to 50,000). It is also known that during the war clandestine detention facilities were set up. At present, 652 places of detention have been registered. The total number of people who were held in the mentioned concentration camps has not been determined with certainty.

In September 2010 TRIAL and six organisations of relatives of missing persons submitted to the HRC information on the subject of missing people, in order to highlight the progresses made, as well as the remaining obstacles for the full implementation of the recommendations issued in November 2006 by the HRC. TRIAL has also filed 40 individual complaints before the European Court of Human Rights or the UN Human Rights Committee on behalf of relatives of missing persons. In May 2011, TRIAL and 12 associations dealing with the subject of victims of rape or other forms of sexual violence during the war submitted a general allegation to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences to highlight the ongoing violations suffered by this category of people. In October 2011, TRIAL, seven associations of relatives of missing persons, seven associations working with victims of sexual violence and four associations of former camp-detainees submitted a follow-up report to the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) to provide it with information on the implementation by BiH of the concluding observations issued by CAT in November 2010. TRIAL will continue to resort to international mechanisms for the protection of human rights in order to turn the attention to the situation of families of missing persons, victims of sexual violence, as well as former camp-detainees in BiH and to put pressure on the government to work harder for the improvement of the current position of these groups of victims.

For further information

  • On the individual complaints filed before the European Court of Human Rights or the UN Human Rights Committee, see here.
  • For the report submitted in September 2010 to the HRC see here.
  • For the concluding observations on BiH issued in 2006 by the HRC, see here See also TRIAL’s website in the local language: trialinternational.org/BiH.

Sarajevo/Geneva, 14 October 2011

 

TRIAL (Swiss Association against Impunity), seven associations of relatives of missing persons, seven associations dealing with women victims of sexual violence during the war and four associations dealing with former concentration-camp detainees submit a follow-up report to the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT).

In October 2011 TRIAL, seven associations of relatives of missing persons(1), seven associations working on the subject of women victims of rape or other forms of sexual violence during the war(2) and four associations or federations of associations of former concentration camp-detainees(3) have submitted a follow-up report to the CAT to highlight the absence of any significant progress with regard to the fulfilment of the international obligations of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). In fact, in November 2010, after having examined BiH’s periodic report, the CAT issued a number of conclusions and recommendations related to the obligations of BiH pursuant to the Convention against Torture. On that occasion the CAT requested BiH to submit follow-up information within one year with regard to the implementation of some of the recommendations contained in its concluding observations.

In particular, BiH failed to modify its criminal legislation with regard to crimes of sexual violence committed during the war and to bring it into accordance with international law; to solve the systemic problem of non-implementation of decisions and rulings issued by the Constitutional Court of BiH; to establish the Fund for Support for the Families of Missing Persons; and to guarantee adequate compensation and integral reparation for the harm suffered to relatives of missing persons, former camp-detainees and women victims of rape or other forms of sexual violence during the war.

“Relatives of missing people, victims of war-time rape and former camp detainees feel discouraged by the lack of implementation of the recommendations formulated by the CAT one year ago” said Ms. Lejla Mamut, the Human Rights Coordinator of TRIAL in Sarajevo. “All the more so, because authorities have not fulfilled their rights over the past 20 years: some of these people are dying and they have not seen justice done, nor have they obtained adequate compensation for the harm suffered or learned the truth about the fate or whereabouts of their loved ones”.

Although some actions have been undertaken on the recommendations formulated by the CAT with regard, for instance, to the investigation, judgment and sanction of crimes committed during the war, the pace of this process is far from satisfactory and the National Strategy for War Crimes is not being implemented in an effective manner.

Ms. Selma Korjenić, TRIAL’s Human Rights Officer in charge of sexual violence for BiH stressed that women victims of sexual violence during the war continue to experience serious troubles in realizing their rights. She highlights that “in some cases, associations dealing with this category of victims have been subjected to instances of harassment, threats or attacks that have been reported to competent authorities. However, to date those responsible for the crimes concerned have not been duly judged and sanctioned”.

In its concluding observations of November 2010, the CAT also recommended that BiH takes a number of measures with regard to the adoption of the law on the rights of victims of torture and civil victims of war; to the functioning of the Missing Persons Institute (MPI); to the completion of the Central Record of the Missing Persons (CEN); to the establishment of a mechanism to keep families of missing persons informed on the progress made in the process of exhumation and identification of mortal remains and to provide them psycho-social assistance during the process; and to the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

With minor exceptions, none of the measures recommended in 2010 by the CAT has been fully implemented to date, leaving relatives of missing persons, former camp-detainees and women victims of rape during the war to bear the brunt of violations that have been ongoing over the past 19 years. “This situation is causing a climate of deep distrust among victims of gross human rights violations from the war and their relatives towards Bosnian institutions and, given that not even the recommendations of international mechanisms are proving to be effective, there is a general feeling of powerlessness and frustration. BiH remains in breach of its international obligations” concluded Ms. Aleksandra Nedzi, TRIAL’s legal consultant in Sarajevo. “However”, she added, “TRIAL will continue monitoring this process and reporting to international mechanisms until this impasse is eventually overcome and the rights to truth, to justice and to reparation are fully guaranteed”.

Overall Context

It is estimated that around 100,000 persons died as a consequence of the conflict in BiH during the period 1992-1995 and that between 25,000 and 30,000 were victims of enforced disappearance. As of today, between 10,000 and 13,000 people are still missing. During the war the use of rape or other forms of sexual violence was widespread (rates of victims of sexual violence vary from 20,000 to 50,000). It is also known that during the war clandestine detention facilities were set up. At present, 652 places of detention have been registered. The total number of people who were held in the mentioned concentration camps has not been determined with certainty.

In October 2010 TRIAL, together with 11 local associations of relatives of missing persons and organizations dealing with women victims of rape or other forms of sexual violence submitted an alternative report to the CAT. Many of the recommendations contained in that 80-page report were reproduced in the concluding observations issued in November 2010 by the CAT. TRIAL has also filed 40 individual complaints before the European Court of Human Rights or the UN Human Rights Committee on behalf of relatives of missing persons. In May 2011, TRIAL and 12 associations dealing with the subject of victims of rape or other forms of sexual violence during the war submitted a general allegation to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences to highlight the ongoing violations suffered by this category of people. TRIAL will continue to resort to international mechanisms for the protection of human rights in order to turn the attention to the situation of families of missing persons, victims of sexual violence, as well as former camp-detainees in BiH and to put pressure on the government to work harder for the improvement of the current position of these groups of victims.

For further information
  • Read the executive summary
  • Read the full document
  • On the individual complaints filed by TRIAL before the European Court of Human Rights or the UN Human Rights Committee, see here.
  • For the report submitted in October 2010 to the CAT see here.
  • See also TRIAL’s website in the local language: trialinternational.org/BiH.

 

[1] Association of Families of Killed and Missing Defenders of the Homeland War from Bugojno Municipality; Association of Relatives of Missing Persons from Hadžići Municipality; Association of Relatives of Missing Persons from Ilijaš Municipality; Association of Relatives of Missing Persons from Kalinovik (Istina-Kalinovik 92), Association of Relatives of Missing Persons of the Sarajevo-Romanija Region; Association of Relatives of Missing Persons of the Vogošća Municipality; and Association of Women from Prijedor – Izvor.

[2] Association of Women-Victims of War; the Centre for Legal Assistance to Women Zenica; Infoteka Women’s Information and Documentation Centre; Sumejja Gerc; Viktorija 99; Vive Žene Tuzla; and the Women’s Section of the Concentration Camp Torture Survivors Canton Sarajevo.

[3] Association of the Concentration Camp-Detainees – Bosnia and Herzegovina; Association of the Concentration Camp-Detainees of the Republika Srpska; Croatian Association of War Prisoners of the Homeland War in Canton of Central Bosnia; and Prijedor 92.

Sarajevo/Geneva, 11 May 2011

Today TRIAL and twelve organizations from BiH dealing with the subject of rape or other forms of sexual violence during the war (the Women’s Section of the Association of Concentration Camp Detainees, the Centre for Legal Assistance to Women Zenica, the Association for Rehabilitation of Torture Victims – Centre for Torture Victims, the Foundation of Local Democracy, the Association of Women-Victims of War, Infoteka – Women’s Information and Documentation Centre, Medica Zenica, Through Heart to Peace, the Society for Threatened Peoples, Sumejja Gerc, Viktorija 99 and Vive Žene Tuzla) submitted a general allegation to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences alleging human rights violations which these victims are facing today and the international obligations which BiH fails to enforce with regard to this category of victims.

The general allegation aims at providing a sound analysis of the existing obstacles for the full implementation of BiH’s international obligations with regard to women victims of rape or other forms of sexual violence during the war. In this view, numerous concrete examples are referred to, as well as recommendations to improve the situation.

Among the main problems singled out in the allegation there is the inadequacy of the existing criminal legislation to deal with rape; the high rate of impunity for perpetrators of rape or other forms of sexual violence during the war; the lack of adequate protection of witnesses and victims of these heinous crimes, who are often subjected to harassment and threats; and the failure to provide victims of these crimes with integral reparation and prompt, fair and adequate compensation for the harm suffered.

Finally, also considering that on 7 May 2010 BiH issued a standing invitation to all United Nations thematic procedures, by this means announcing that it will always accept requests to visit from special procedures, TRIAL and the other twelve associations subscribing the general allegation call on the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences to request to BiH to carry out a country visit. Such mission in the field would enable the Special Rapporteur to gather first hand information on the situation of this category of people and to issue a set of comprehensive recommendations in this regard.

Overall Context 

It is estimated that between 20,000 and 50,000 women were subjected to rape or other forms of sexual violence during the 1992-1995 war. In this context rape was used as a means of implementing the strategy of ethnic cleansing and to increase inter-ethnic hatred. As of today, less than twenty people have been convicted for these crimes by national courts and eighteen by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Impunity remains rampant. The existing legal framework in BiH does not allow victims of rape or other forms of sexual violence to obtain integral reparation and compensation for the harm suffered.

For further information

In May 2011, TRIAL and 12 local associations from all sides, active in the support of victims of sexual violence during the war, submitted a 62-page document (entitled a “General Allegation” to the United Nations Special Rapport on Violence Against Women, it’s Causes and Consequences.

Read the press release.