Women, Peace and Security News: Kosovo

Women Demand UN Meeting and a Say in Kosovo's Future
April 25, 2007 – (Oneworld) Vienna and Washington, DC: In a powerful show of coordinated advocacy, 17 leading members of women’s civil society from six Balkan countries and Kosovo have asked for an urgent meeting with the UN Security Council, and repeated their demand that women must participate directly in talks on the future of Kosovo.

Serbian Press Seeks Jail for Women Peace Activists Who Advocate Independence for Kosovo
February 22, 2007 - (PeaceJournlism) In a blatant attempt to intimidate advocates of a peaceful solution to the Serbia-Kosovo conflict, a leading Serbian nationalist newspaper has called for the prosecution of the Women’s Peace Coalition, a joint initiative of women activists, for advocating for the independence of Kosovo.

UNIFEM goodwill ambassador Nicole Kidman visits Kosovo
October 16, 2006 - (UNIFEM) United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman concluded a two-day visit on 14 and 15 October to Kosovo, her first trip as UNIFEM's Goodwill Ambassador. The visit provided Ms. Kidman an opportunity to learn first-hand about the experiences of women in Kosovo and UNIFEM's efforts to support them.

Criminal Justice System Fails Victims
May 30, 2006 -(Human Watch) The criminal justice system continues to fail victims in Kosovo, despite almost seven years of international administration, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Kosovo’s future status is currently the subject of intense negotiations mediated by the international community.

UN’s top envoy to Kosovo urges higher profile for women in political life
March 2, 2006 -(UN News) The senior United Nations envoy to Kosovo today urged a higher profile for women in the political life of the UN-administered province.

For Children in War Zones, Strains of Happiness and Hope
February 17, 2006 -(The Washington Post) Music can have a magical effect on children accustomed to the rumble of artillery fire, the dispiriting drone of warplanes and the life-threatening bark of the enemy. For the past six years, Liz Shropshire, the founder and director of the Shropshire Music Foundation, has devoted her life to teaching children in war zones to sing and play instruments as a way to bring them out of their trauma.

2005

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR GIRLS
April 14, 2005 - (IWPR) Tradition, poverty and parental apathy mean that most Roma girls do not get even a basic education.

"No Go" Zones to Prevent Sex Abuse by U.N. Peacekeepers
April 4, 2005 - (IPS) As charges mount of sexual abuse and child molestation by U.N. peacekeepers, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) has drawn up a list of "no go" zones barring visits by blue-helmeted soldiers and civilian staff.

UN MISSION SPOTLIGHTS KOSOVO’S GENDER GAP IN EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATION
June 8, 2004 – (UN News) Kosovo suffers from a serious gender gap, with the United Nations mission’s first comprehensive survey of gender data in the province showing that women are severely under-represented in the workforce and girls’ attendance at secondary school is much lower than that of boys.

FIRST COLLECTION OF GENDER DISAGGREGATED DATA ON WOMEN AND MEN IN KOSOVO IS PUBLISHED
June 8, 2004 - (UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo) The Office of Gender Affairs in UNMIK's Civil Administration, has published the first complete survey of all available gender statistics, "Women and Men in Kosovo", which will contribute to redressing the lack of gender disaggregated data at the disposal of Kosovar institutions. The published data will serve as a policy and planning tool for both policy-makers and civil society in helping to close the gender gaps in the education, health, economy and employment, social welfare and agricultural sectors.

NATO FORCE 'FEEDS KOSOVO SEX TRADE'
May 7, 2004—(The Guardian) Western troops, policemen, and civilians are largely to blame for the rapid growth of the sex slavery industry in Kosovo over the past five years, a mushrooming trade in which hundreds of women, many of them under-age girls, are tortured, raped, abused and then criminalised, Amnesty International said yesterday.

UNMIK DENIES ACCUSATIONS OF FUELING SEX SLAVERY IN KOSOVO
May 7, 2004 – (UN Wire) The U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has denied allegations made by Amnesty International yesterday that U.N. and NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo are fueling a human trafficking industry that sexually exploits women and girls, Belgrade's B92 reports (May 7).

UNMIK, KFOR FUELING SEX SLAVERY IN KOSOVO, AMNESTY SAYS
May 6, 2004 – (UN Wire) U.N. and NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo are fueling a human trafficking industry that sexually exploits women and girls as young as 11, according to a report released today by Amnesty International.

KOSOVO UN TROOPS 'FUEL SEX TRADE'
May 6, 2004 – (BBC) The presence of peacekeepers in Kosovo is fuelling the sexual exploitation of women and encouraging trafficking, according to Amnesty International.

KOSOVO: TRAFFICKED WOMEN AND GIRLS HAVE HUMAN RIGHTS
May 6, 2004 – (Amnesty International Press Release) Despite some positive measures, trafficking of women and girls remains a disgraceful human rights abuse in Kosovo. The international community is responsible for the growth of a sex-industry based on the abuse of trafficked women, said Amnesty International at a press conference revealing the result of its research into the trafficking of women and girls in Kosovo.

KOSOVO: FACTS AND FIGURES ON TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN AND GIRLS FOR FORCED PROSTITUTION IN KOSOVO
May 6, 2004 – (Amnesty International Media Briefing) Women and girls trafficked into Kosovo come from some of the poorest countries in Europe, where they face discrimination in access to social and economic rights and have experienced domestic or other gender-based violence.

UNMIK, KFOR FUELING SEX SLAVERY IN KOSOVO, AMNESTY SAYS
May 6, 2004 – (UN Wire) U.N. and NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo are fueling a human trafficking industry that sexually exploits women and girls as young as 11, according to a report released today by Amnesty International.

GIRLS FACE PRESSURE TO STOP ‘WASTING TIME’ IN SCHOOL
April 29, 2004 – (IWPR) The advent of political freedom in Kosovo has not freed women from the widespread notion that serious education is men’s business.

NO LET-UP IN ETHNIC VIOLENCE
March 18, 2004 – (IWPR News) Serb church and homes torched in enclave town of Obilic, as Serbian and Kosovo capitals are quiet after overnight rioting.

FEROCITY OF CLASHES STUNS ALL
March 18, 2004 – (IWPR News) The scale, viciousness and timing of the violence has taken many by surprise. As the KFOR APC drove quickly through the centre of Pristina on the night of March 17, pushing along a rubbish container placed in the middle of the street to obstruct its progress, an angry protester shouted, “Stop if you dare.”

OUR LONGEST DAY
March 18, 2004 – (IWPR News) In 24 hours, Kosovo slipped back to the fear, suspicion and violence of June 1999. All I wanted on Wednesday was to finish work as soon as possible and catch up on some sleep I’d missed the previous evening. But this turned out to be wishful thinking. Violence erupted across Kosovo - and members of my family were caught up in it.

FLAMES ENGULF BELGRADE MOSQUE
March 18, 2004 – (IWPR News) Locals stunned by mob attack on historic Ottoman building following Kosovo rioting. As the flames flickered through the stone walls of the 17th-century Bajrakli mosque in Belgrade, the sound of Orthodox church music played surreally from a nearby car. A man appeared out of the clouds of smoke, carrying a looted green flag with the crescent of Islam. "Serbia has Risen!" he shouted

SURVIVING KOSOVO'S WAR WAS HARD. SO IS THE PEACE
February 22, 2004 – (Washington Post) The tiny house in the Drenica region of Kosovo was colder and darker than the gray midwinter street outside. The windows were small and smudged, and there was no electricity. There was a single chair at a table on which sat a used dish and glass. I stood there in December, shivering in my warm parka, while a man who is 50 but looked 65 gestured at the picture of his son. The young man was a student when it was taken, later a soldier with the Kosovo Liberation Army. At 21, he killed himself in this small house, in a region where suicide has become all too common.

2003

SERB POLICEMAN DESCRIBES MASSACRE IN KOSOVO
December 11, 2003 – (NYT) For the first time since the end of the 1990's wars that broke up Yugoslavia, a former Serbian policeman went before a local court on Wednesday and described how his police reserve unit had taken part in the massacre of at least 14 people, including 7 children.

TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE FROM FOREIGN AID
December 4, 2030 - (Kvinna till Kvinna) By supporting women in rural areas, the women’s organisation MQ helps to rebuild society in war-torn Kosovo. Their goal is to make Kosovo independent from foreign aid and to make themselves unnecessary.

FAMILIES OF MISSING KOSOVARS SEEK JUSTICE
November 13, 2003 – (IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, No. 468) Families of Albanians abducted during the Kosovo war are bringing a legal action against the alleged kidnappers to head off any attempt by local politicians to use their missing relatives as a negotiating ploy in talks with Belgrade.

UN 'LETTING TORTURER ESCAPE'
October 3, 2003 – (The Guardian) The United Nations broke its own anti-torture convention by allowing a Zimbabwean police officer accused of torture to leave its peace force in Kosovo and return to Zimbabwe where he will probably not face investigation.

TRADING IN MISERY
September 15, 2003 – (IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, No. 460) Tens of thousands of Eastern European women are falling victim to the Balkan sex trade.

THE WOMEN OF KOSOVO AND AFGHANISTAN URGE IRAQI WOMEN TO 'ORGANIZE AND RAISE THEIR VOICE' DURING RECONSTRUCTION
May 25, 2003 - (US Advocacy Project) 'According to reports, Iraq's women have been apprehensive to emerge in public because of the violence and looting, and support seems to be growing for Islamic fundamentalism in the south. Equally disturbing, the US and British occupation forces appear to have made little effort to appoint specialists in women's affairs or make women's rights a priority in the reconstruction effort. All of this seems ominously familiar to the women of Kosovo and Afghanistan, who have had to fight hard for a seat at the table of reconstruction.'

INTERNATIONAL DAY TO ELIMINATE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN COMMEMORATED IN KOSOVO
November 25, 2002 - (ReliefWeb) A number of activities will be held today to note the International Day to Eliminate Violence against Women, culminating with a concert organized by the Kosovo Women's Network at the Pristina National Theatre.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORT: KOSOVO SEX INDUSTRY
August 5, 2002 - (IWPR) There was hardly any prostitution in Kosovo before the war - now it's booming

OSCE HOSTS CONFERENCE IN KOSOVO ON WOMEN IN POST-CONFLICT SOCIETIES
May 28, 2002 – (OSCE) Women's role in conflict prevention, resolution and post-conflict dialogue will be the theme of a conference hosted by the OSCE Mission in Kosovo today. Women NGO activists and politicians representing the various communities of Kosovo have been invited to discuss the issue and to present their conclusions to representatives of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government and to international decision makers.

2001

YUGOSLAVIA/KOSOVO: “WOMEN FACING WAR”: ICRC HOLDS MULTIETHNIC ROUND TABLE
December 13, 2001 – (ICRC) It will never happen again. Let's prove by action that women and mothers, through their human and humanitarian work, can and must be a bastion for peace and tolerance". "My parents went missing but I can't blame a whole community for what happened to me. Others also have missing relatives. Their grief is as deep as mine". "Nothing can be achieved through violence and revenge".

KOSOVO’S FIRST LADY
November 15, 2001 – (The Guardian) She escaped jail under Milosevic and now wants to lead her country to independence. Scarlett MccGwire meets Flora Brovina.

WOMEN FROM AFGHANISTAN, KOSOVO AND EAST TIMOR ASK FOR INCREASED PROTECTION FROM ABUSES DURING WAR
November 3, 2001- Women peace leaders from Afghanistan, Kosovo and East Timor today spoke to Security Council Members about violations committed against women during and after war and women's role in peace negotiations and peace-keeping efforts. International experts Elisabeth Rehn, former UN Under-Secretary General, and Maha Muna from the NGO Working Group on Women, International Peace and Security also addressed Council Members at the meeting in New York.

WOMEN LEADERS FROM WAR-TORN AREAS TO ADDRESS UN SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
October 28, 2001 - Day-of-news press conference with women peace leaders from Afghanistan, Kosovo, East Timor and the Democratic Republic of Congo on the outcome of their meeting with the Secuirty Council Members. In a closed meeting on the morning of October 30, called an Arria formula, women leaders will speak to Security Council Members about violations committed against women during and after conflict and revisit resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security.

CLEARING LAND MINES IS WOMEN'S WORK
February 8, 2001 – (Washington Post article in The Record – Waterloo, Ontario) In Kosovo, 100 women are removing land mines as technicians for the Slovenian-founded International Trust Fund (ITF) for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance.

UN MISSION IN KOSOVO IN FIRST TRAFFICKING CONVICTION
February 7, 2001 – (Serbian Orthodox Church) A Kosovo Albanian male has been convicted and sentenced on charges of trafficking in women and controlling them for the purpose of prostitution, according to a February 5 press release from the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

2000

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN INCREASES IN WAR-TORN KOSOVO
July 25, 2000 – (Feminist.org – Kosovo) Violence against women has increased in Kosovo, suggesting that postwar trauma has added yet another threat to women's safety. Domestic violence is still not considered a crime in Kosovo, and lawyers are often reluctant to take cases that target husbands for wife beating and rape. "Violence on women has deep roots in the Kosovar Albanian society, where force is respected, beating is a kind of education and shutting up, an unwritten rule," remarked Rachel Wareham, a writer of a U.N. sponsored report on domestic violence in Kosovo. According to Wareham, a quarter of women in Kosovo have experienced domestic violence in the last two years.

1999

COUNSELLING AND SUPPORT FOR KOSOVO WOMEN
July 19, 1999 – (International Planned Parenthood Federation) Despite international speculation that the suffering has ended in Kosovo, this suffering has only just begun, according to Valentina Leskaj, Director of the Albanian Family Planning Association. The FPA has now established a team of counsellors who will work with women victims of rape both in Albanian refugee camps and also in Kosovo. Their work in the refugee camps in Albania has included support to two 13 year old girls who were victims of rape.

The opinions expressed in the articles carried by this site are those of the authors and are not necessarily shared by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, PeaceWomen Project.