When victims break silence: Wartime sexual violence and social recognition in Kosovo and Croatia

Wartime sexual violence has been recognized as a gross human rights violation and a weapon of war, for which justice is due. Transitional justice scholars have pinpointed victim-blaming and victim-shaming culture that the victim survivors face, which is why it is difficult for them to break the silence about wartime rape. This paper investigates how women victims of wartime violence break silence, and whether silence-breaking generates social recognition conceptualized as a form of justice. The analysis turns to the analysis of interactions with the silence-breakers in the public domain. The paper shows that injustice for sexual violence is perpetuated in the public domain even when victims/survivors break the silence. It identifies cultural (family and gender roles) and political (ethno-national) mechanisms that explain how the victims’ act of speaking out is subverted to deny them justice for their suffering. The empirical evidence draws on fieldwork interviews conducted in Kosovo and Croatia, and the analysis of TV interviews, print media and social media. A multi-method comparative analysis of silence-breaking demonstrates how different post-war contexts impact on discursive interactions and social recognition. This paper advances the scholarship on gendered transitional justice, specifically, recent attempts to problematize the relationship between silence and justice.