Improve Status of Sexual Violence Victims
The United Nations’ Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, CEDAW, recommends to Bosnia and Herzegovina to reclassify sexual violence crimes into war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Speeding up the adoption of the law and programme for the efficient solving of war crime victims, revising criminal codes in terms of definition of war crimes and ensuring safe space for survivors are among many of CEDAW’s recommendations to the Bosnian State related to women, survivors of war victims.
These recommendations, which were adopted in July 2013, were presented at a conference titled “Obligations of Bosnia and Herzegovina towards women, war crimes survivors”, which was held in Sarajevo on September 18. The Conference was organised by the Swiss association against impunity, TRIAL.
“It is necessary to create a database of war crimes cases. Taking multiple statements from injured parties, which exposes them to traumas every time, can be prevented by the means of law. Also, it is important to additionally sensitise judges and prosecutors, who are dealing with those cases, and contribute to the harmonisation of court practices,” said Selma Korjenic, TRIAL’s advisor for human rights.
While mentioning that it was necessary to educate the media, Nela Porobic-Isakovic said that the media gave more space to perpetrators, although victims needed to tell their stories.
She considers that the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina should form some sort of a memorial, or actually a space for remembrance, where documentation about the past events would be kept.
The problem of the slow processing of sexual violence crimes and the necessity to reclassify sexual violence crimes into war crimes and crimes against humanity are among CEDAW’s key CEDAW recommendations.
As said at the conference, TRIAL would send the document to all competent institutions and establish a dialogue with relevant actors in further procedures with the aim of implementing the CEDAW recommendations in practice.
