DIGNITY OF BOSNIAN TRAUMATIZED WOMEN

FOR DIGNITY OF THE SURVIVORS

For the first time in history raping of women, executed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in a planned and organized way, was declared a war crime and a crime against humanity. But even 10 years after the war has been finished in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the destinies of women who survived war rape did not initiate the state institutions to adjust legal frameworks to the needs of these women. There is no law that treats status of women who survived crime of war rape which, commonly, was done repeatedly. Nobody still knows precisely how many women survived war rape. Only the fact that there were thousands is for sure. It is also unknown how many children have been born out of those horror crimes.

These women, with exception of rare cases, are generally without the financial support; unemployed, and with significantly decreased labour capacities as a consequence of the survived trauma. They are not enabled for additional professional training or changing the working qualification. For all these facts they are economically dependant. Most survivors of war rape do not have adequate health protection or the access to psychosocial support. The issue of their accommodation is unresolved. They did not receive support for education of their children.

They live with their traumas kept inside. The burden of silenced trauma is often a boundary for return of these women to pre-war pl aces of residence and they do not file applications for return of the property. Only the rare ones have had gathered the strength to apply for civil victim of war status recognition and achieved minimum financial amends set by such status.

They do not have possibilities to receive any other indemnity for the consequences of the torture they survived.

These women live in silence, at margins of our society, surrounded by their painful memories. They don't speak at all, or speak very rarely, about their hard experiences. Those that can not be forgotten.

Their memories should be our memories too; their sacrifices do not concern them only, but should concern all of us; and not only here-at these territories.

Women who survived war rapes must not be neglected and forgotten. That lesson is for all to be learned; so it would not repeat.

For these rea sons, this campaign advocates for:

• Adoption of amendments to current law that would enable women survivors of war trauma to exercise the rights set for civil victims of war.
• Passing the law on state level that would unify regulations of rights of war torture survivors, including women war rape survivors, and ensure means for implementation of the law.