Bosnia & Herzegovina

Citation:

Author: Daniela Lai

Abstract:

While International Financial Institutions (IFIs) play an increasingly relevant role in post-war countries, the interplay between their interventions and other aspects of post-conflict transitions, such as those related to dealing with the consequences of wartime violence, has not received much attention in the literature. This paper tackles this gap and suggests that, in post-conflict contexts, gendered forms of socioeconomic violence and injustice can be perpetuated through economic reforms led by IFIs. Overlooking justice considerations in post-war economic reforms not only reflects and reinforces a limited understanding of wartime violence and justice issues, but also entrenches gendered forms of socioeconomic injustice that had their roots in the war. A feminist approach to the study of political economy encompassing both gender and socioeconomic justice is adopted here to show how complex and overlapping forms of injustice are supported by wartime and post-war political-economic power structures. To illustrate how and why justice considerations are important for post-war economic reforms, the paper looks at the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and analyses the rationale and gendered effects of economic reforms that reorganized welfare and jobs, and promoted privatisations that accelerated deindustrialisation and economic decline.

Keywords: international financial institutions, post-war justice, feminist IPE, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Topics: Feminisms, Feminist Political Economy, Gender, International Financial Institutions, Justice, Post-Conflict, Violence Regions: Europe, Balkans Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Year: 2019

Citation:

Szedlacsek, Eszter. 2019. “Security Sector Reform, Small Arms and Light Weapons and Gender in the Post-Conflict Western Balkans.” Corvinus Journal of International Affairs 4 (1): 26-38.

Author: Eszter Szedlacsek

Abstract:

We all experience war in a different way – building peace in post-conflict environments requires solutions that bring together various aspects of these experiences at the local, national and international levels. However, the actors involved and the social groups they address are only rarely those at the margin, and the diversity of the catch-all category of “locals” frequently goes unacknowledged when considering Security Sector Reform (SSR) and especially small arms control. Numerous studies have focused on SSR and gender in the Balkans, on perceptions of security in post-conflict environments and its gender-related aspects, as well as on the gendered aspects of small arms, but so far the analysis bringing together all of these aspects is scarce. This paper aims to address this gap, providing an overview of these areas to show that attempts at state-building and security-provision in the Western Balkans have failed to appropriately incorporate gender mainstreaming into their agendas. It is the central claim of this paper that policymakers must realize that gender mainstreaming without a broader understanding of gendered aspects of security does not and will not have transformative power – neither in the Western Balkans, nor in other post-conflict environments.

Keywords: security sector reform (SSR), post-conflict, small arms and light weapons (SALW), Gender, Western Balkans

Topics: Gender, Gender Mainstreaming, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Security Sector Reform, Weapons /Arms Regions: Europe, Baltic states, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2019

Citation:

Boesten, Jelke, and Marsha Henry. 2018. "Between Fatigue and Silence: The Challenges of Conducting Research on Sexual Violence in Conflict." Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 25 (4): 568-88.

Authors: Jelke Boesten, Marsha Henry

Abstract:

This paper discusses the meanings of research fatigue and silences in conflict-related sexual violence research. Drawing on field experiences in Liberia, Tanzania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Peru, we discuss some of the unintended consequences of persistent focus on victim-survivors’ narratives and argue for a reflexive feminist perspective that allows us to question the need and context of interviewing survivors and the associated insistence on disclosure.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Feminisms, Sexual Violence Regions: Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Americas, South America, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Liberia, Peru, Tanzania

Year: 2018

Citation:

Berry, Marie E., and Trishna R. Rana. 2019. “What Prevents Peace? Women and Peacebuilding in Bosnia and Nepal.” Peace & Change 44 (3): 321–49.

Authors: Marie E. Berry, Trishna R. Rana

Abstract:

There is an emerging consensus that women must play a more substantial role in transformations from violence to stability. The UN Women, Peace, and Security framework recognizes the unique challenges women face during war and affirms the important role they play in the prevention and resolution of conflicts. Despite this framework and other related efforts, peace remains elusive for many who have lived through armed conflict. What prevents formal, internationally led peacebuilding efforts from fostering sustainable peace in ordinary citizens’ lives? Put differently, despite the variety of peacebuilding mechanisms offered, what prevents peace from taking hold, for women in particular? In this paper, we focus on two postwar cases: Bosnia and Nepal. Drawing on interviews with more than seventy women in both countries, we identify five barriers that prevent women from feeling at peace in their daily lives: economic insecurity, competing truths, hierarchies of victimhood, continuums of violence, and spatial and temporal dislocation. We conclude by outlining ways that women in both countries work to overcome those barriers by pioneering innovations in peacebuilding, which may reveal possibilities for future interventions.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Economies, Gender, Women, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, Violence Regions: Asia, South Asia, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Nepal

Year: 2019

Citation:

O'Reilly, Maria. 2018. Gendered Agency in War and Peace. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Author: Maria O'Reilly

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Justice, Transitional Justice, Peacebuilding Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Year: 2018

Citation:

Clark, Janine Natalya. 2018. "Transitional Justice, Education, and Sexual Violence Stigma: The Results of a Schools-Based Study in Bosnia-Herzegovina." Journal of Law and Society 45 (4): 509-37. 

Author: Janine Natalya Clark

Abstract:

Within the context of armed conflict, the problem of sexual violence‐related stigma is routinely acknowledged. Sustained efforts to tackle it, however, have often been lacking. This article argues that transitional justice processes have an important role to play in fighting stigma, and in creating new attitudinal spaces that enable those who have suffered sexual violence to tell their stories without fear of being mocked or judged. Underscoring crucial linkages between education and transitional justice, the article introduces a novel schools‐based project in Bosnia‐Herzegovina (BiH). Based on analysis of over 800 questionnaires, it demonstrates how a series of talks delivered in BiH high schools on the issue of conflict‐related sexual violence led to some positive and important attitudinal changes vis‐à‐vis common rape myths. These educational efforts to tackle stigma are theorized in the article as highlighting a crucial attitudinal dimension of transitional justice.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Education, Justice, Transitional Justice, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Year: 2018

Citation:

Jurasz, Olga, and Solange Mouthaan. 2019. Gender and War: International and Transitional Justice Perspectives. Cambridge: Intersentia.

Authors: Solange Mouthaan, Olga Jurasz

Keywords: Gender, war, transitional justice, international law, conflict

Annotation:

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Economies, War Economies, Gender, Gender-Based Violence, International Law, Justice, Transitional Justice, War Crimes, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Female Perpetrators, SV against Men Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Yugoslavia (former)

Year: 2019

Citation:

Melia, Jan. 2018. "Masculinity, Post-Conflict Police Reform & Gender-Based Violence in Northern Ireland & Bosnia Herzegovina." PhD diss., University of Aberdeen.

Author: Jan Melia

Abstract:

This dissertation aims to examine masculinities and transitional police reform, considering policy and processes, and investigating the policing of gender-based violence in post-war societies. Drawing upon current feminist theory in the field of transitional justice, it focuses on masculinities in formal post-conflict police reform processes, an area that has been much under-researched in the academic literature. More specifically, the dissertation examines international processes focused on police reform advocacy relating to gender-sensitive reform, and local level police reform relating to gender-based violence (GBV). To examine local level reforms, two post-conflict case sites, Bosnia Herzegovina (BiH), and Northern Ireland (NI) were selected for investigation. My research understands gender as a discursive construct and investigates the gendered conceptions built into police reform policy, process, and practice. How these conceptions come to be part of police reform texts and how they manifest in post-conflict policing responses to gender-based violence (GBV) is the focus of the dissertation. Overall, my research identifies masculinity as an unstated norm in police reform, and case study findings indicate that hegemonic masculinities shape police reform policy and practice relating to GBV in particular ways, reiterating conventional gender norms, and limiting the potential for transformative change. Findings suggest that current reforms in post-conflict transitions contribute to, and constitute a process of remasculinisation.

Keywords: masculinity, police, police administration, women

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Justice, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict, Security Sector Reform Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, United Kingdom

Year: 2018

Citation:

D’Costa, Bina and Katrina Lee-Koo, ed. 2009. Gender Mainstreaming in a Post-Conflict State. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Bina D'Costa, Katrina Lee-Koo

Abstract:

Gender equality is widely believed by international organizations and mainstream commentators to contribute to the consolidation of democratic norms and domestic and international peace.1 The United Nations (UN) has promoted strategies for achieving gender equality as a central part of its peacebuilding and reconstruction programs. In Bosnia, Kosovo, and East Timor, UN missions have incorporated gender mainstreaming and gender-balanced decision-making policies and programs to foster civil society as means to ensure long-term peace and development. To what extent, though, are these institutional initiatives able to transform the deep-seated gendered social hierarchies in these new states? Feminist scholars argue that such hierarchies are at the root of violence against women, women’s lack of voice, and political representation. They hold that any meaningful democratic strategy must eliminate these hierarchies to bring about political freedom and equality. In Timor these feminist perspectives on gender justice and equality are an emerging part of the public debate about the processes of democratization in state and civil society. They can be seen in speeches, communications, and reports of local women’s organizations, donor agencies, NGOs, and the UN, however, this political activity has yet to be theoretically analyzed by feminist or nonfeminist scholars. Here we seek to highlight some of the gendered practices of democratization and assess the struggles within East Timorese civil society to forge a gender-equal democracy.

Keywords: civil society, domestic violence, United Nations, gender equality, gender perspective

Topics: Civil Society, Democracy / Democratization, Development, Domestic Violence, Feminisms, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gendered Discourses, Gender-Based Violence, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding, Political Participation, Peacekeeping Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe, Oceania Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Timor-Leste

Year: 2009

Citation:

Vandenberg, Martina. 2018.  "Peacekeeping, Human Trafficking, and Sexual Abuse and Exploitation." In The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Conflict, edited by Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Naomi Cahn, Dina Francesca Haynes, and Nahla Valji. Oxford University Press. 

Author: Martina Vandenberg

Abstract:

This chapter provides an overview of human trafficking and other forms of sexual abuse committed by peacekeepers and civilians employed in peacekeeping missions. It opens with a historical review of violations committed by peacekeepers and the current international response to the issue. The chapter introduces relevant international legal instruments, including the UN Protocol to Suppress, Prevent and Punish Trafficking in Persons, and examines the United Nations’ response to various instances of misconduct. Focusing on Bosnia and Herzegovina and the MINUSCA mission in the Central African Republic, the chapter details the consistent failure of national courts to prosecute offenders and the inability of the UN to take action beyond repatriating the offenders. The chapter closes with recommendations for the UN to move beyond prevention work to improve enforcement of peacekeeper conduct policies.

Keywords: human trafficking, sexual abuse, peacekeepers, peacekeeping mission, UN Protocol to Suppress, Prevent and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Central African Republic, MINUSCA

Topics: International Law, International Organizations, Peacekeeping, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Africa, Central Africa, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Central African Republic

Year: 2018