Women between War Scylla and Nationalist Charybdis: Legal Interpretations of Sexual Violence in the Countries of Former Yugoslavia

Transitional justice has been treated as one of the pillars in the processes of post-conflict state building and sustainable peacebuilding in the former Yugoslav region. Gender dimensions of conflicts, especially sexually and gender based violations of justice, fall under the rubric of mainstreaming of gender justice in transitional justice. Transitional justice mechanisms may be viewed as adequate means to pursue gender justice. Therefore, in this chapter we will focus on the implementation of the Point 11 of UNSCR 1325 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia and Kosovo. The implementation of UNSCR 1325 had been seen as a promising provision for women war violence survivors and was strongly advocated by grassroots women’s and feminist groups. It was believed that such a provision might bring justice and equal treatment to all women who suffered sexual and gender based violence during the wars, regardless of their ethnicity. However, as will be showcased by country cases, four years after the beginning of the implementation of National Strategic Documents the states lack consistent and collaborative measures to prevent impunity and offer redress to the survivors of gender related war injustices. Furthermore, it is our claim that the four successor states of Yugoslavia have not only failed to implement measures adequately, but that they have used those very mechanisms to promote a certain form of legal nationalism. We rely on the analyses of the laws on civilian victims of wars or related measures, of the National Strategic Documents of each state, on reports of women’s grassroots and feminist groups and international institutions, as well as on recent media reports.