Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Kosovo: Gendering Justice Through Transformative Reparations

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) has been historically perceived as a lesser crime that is incidental, opportunistic or divorced from other war-time atrocities. Conceptualising sexual violence in this manner rendered these crimes invisible in the theatre of war and consequently denied victims justice. The conflicts in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s triggered a dramatic shift that challenged the marginalisation and silencing of sexual violence. Media coverage of the courageous testimony of victims of ‘rape camps’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) catapulted CRSV into the public domain. Sexual violence was recast as a ‘weapon of war’ that was integral to the ethnic cleansing campaigns in the former Yugoslavia. These developments spearheaded calls to end impunity for sexual violence in this conflict. Sexual violence was also prevalent during the conflict in Kosovo. As the former Yugoslavia disintegrated, in the late 1990s Serb forces clashed with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which sought to establish an independent Kosovo (then a province of Serbia within the former Yugoslavia). Civilians experienced a raft of atrocities during the fighting: murder, beatings, deportation, property destruction and sexual violence. Serb forces used sexual violence to terrorise and expel Kosovo Albanian civilians from Kosovo during their ethnic cleansing of the province. Sexual violence was omnipresent – in detention, in homes and in convoys as women fled. Has there been justice for victims of CRSV in Kosovo almost 20 years after the end of conflict? Following a long and hard-fought battle, they are now entitled to receive reparations as a legal right, arising from their status as CRSV victims. This is significant. The reparations process has commenced, and women who have been recognised as CRSV victims are awaiting compensation in the form of a monthly pension. Nonetheless, in terms of domestic prosecutions of CRSV, a lack of accountability for this crime is the norm. There have been no convictions entered in respect of CRSV in domestic courts in Kosovo. However, at the international level, sexual violence has been successfully prosecuted at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The Appeals Judgments of Sainovicet al .