Prosecution of Wartime Sexualized Violence at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina: What Happened to The Interest of Justice? - An Analysis and Recommendations on Gender Sensitive Trial Monitoring for Wartime Sxualized violence cases in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the period of 23/05/2011 – 25/05/2012.
Publisher: Asocijacija Alumni Centra za interdisciplinarne postdiplomske studije (ACIPS), BiH
Date: 2012
Volume: 65 pages, pdf
Description
A product of a yearlong gender sensitive trial monitoring of wartime sexualized violence cases at the Court of BiH, this report identifies flaws in the prosecution of those cases and recommends ways of overcoming those issues from a gender sensitive perspective. As such, it can be a useful tool for judges, prosecutors and others who work at the institutional level with survivors of wartime sexualized crimes in order to reduce the mechanisms of trauma and processes of retraumatisation during their testimonies. Considering the increased stigmatization of women survivors of wartime sexualized violence, gender sensitive trial monitoring is important because it points at the ways that would make courtrooms a more responsive environment for women’s testifying. The interest of the women survivors is at the very core of the research and analysis conducted. This analysis is a constructive contribution to the BiH Court and Prosecutor’s Office in order for them to acknowledge the wrongful treatment of women witnesses and survivors of wartime sexualized violence and to take steps to permanently remedy the mistreatment of those witnesses. This report is an attempt to motivate the jurisprudence to question its methods related to approaching people who survived wartime sexualized violence, in order to reduce additional suffering and trauma of the survivors, vividly present during their testimonies. The project is the first academic attempt of this kind in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the authors certainly hope it initiates positive and much needed changes towards more humane legal procedures.