The new report entitled ‘Balkan Chronicle: Gender Equality, Transitional Justice and the International Community’, produced by Impunity Watch, will be launched on Friday at a presentation at the Marriott Hotel in Sarajevo as part of BIRN’s Transitional Justice Programme.
The report examines the topic of gender justice in post-Yugoslav societies, with a special emphasis on the role of the international community.
One of the findings of the report is that the responses of the international community to violations of the principles of gender equality and transitional justice in the Balkans were often too narrow and lacked long-term political support.
“A broader gender perspective to transitional justice policies in the Balkans is missing. Gender equality and transitional justice policy in the region has been mostly limited to pushing for legally addressing conflict-related sexual violence,” the report says.
“Political settlement and economic reform, which only benefit a few, have been prioritised over the issue of gender equality and justice from the very beginning,” said Thomas Unger of Impunity Watch, the author of the report.
The launch event will feature a presentation of the key findings of the report and a panel on the contribution of gender justice to conflict prevention.
The panel will make important links between transitional justice, gender and conflict prevention, with recommendations for policy-makers.
The panelists will be civil society activists from various parts of the former Yugoslavia as well as international policy- and decision-makers.
The launch event is part of BIRN’s Transitional Justice Programme – a regional initiative that aims to improve the general public’s understanding of transitional justice in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. The programme is supported by the European Commission.
The launch will take place on Friday at 10am local time, and anyone interested in attending should RSVP to [email protected] by Thursday.
The working languages will be English and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian. Simultaneous translation will be provided.
The agenda can be seen here in English, and here in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian.
