BIRN BiH Puts Focus on Sexual Violence in War
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BIRN marked the beginning of the implementation of its strategy, covering war crimes of a sexual nature, by launching a specialised sub-webpage, containing reports from trials for rape and sexual torture in BIH, as well as other audio and video materials on this subject.
BIRN BiH decided to put focus on crimes of sexual nature committed during the war due to the fact that very few cases covering such crimes have been processed so far. In fact, only about 150 second instance trials, covering wartime rape and sexual torture, have been completed before international and regional courts so far.
“By following trials and working in the field over the course of the past years, BIRN BiH has identified the situation in which victims of sexual violence live as one of the biggest problems. We have therefore decided to focus our activities on those issues in order to help them achieve justice and get any type of reparation and protection,” said Anisa Suceska-Vekic, Director of BIRN BiH.
As part of this Strategy, during this year BIRN will finalise the production of a documentary dealing with the difficult situation in which women and men, who survived rape or sexual abuse during the war, live today.
At the same time, the film will contain a reconstruction of a court proceeding, so potential witnesses will be informed about their rights and obligations, with the aim of motivating them to speak publicly about crimes of a sexual nature committed during the war.
At the end of this year BIRN BiH will organise closed screenings of the film at its meetings with prosecutors’ offices dealing with war crimes cases with the aim of making the film available to potential witnesses, so they may be encouraged to share their experiences.
In June this year a BIRN BiH team will hold several lectures within the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, which will be organized by the Great Britain’s Foreign Office.
