Stories.

Local Family Associations in Bosnia

Lidja Skaro of the International Commission on Missing Persons talks of the importance of involving local family associations in Bosnia-Hezegovina.

From the Editors

Amnesty International: Bosnia & Herzegovina: ‘Whose justice?’ – The women of Bosnia and Herzegovina are still waiting. (Published September 2009)

During the 1992 – 1995 Bosnia and Herzegovina conflict, rape and sexual violence was widespread. This Amnesty report looks at how successive governments have not only failed to bring those responsible to justice, but have also failed to provide survivors of sexual violence with reparation.

“During the war, thousands of women and girls were raped, often with extreme brutality; many were held in prison camps, hotels, private houses where they were sexually exploited. Many women and girls were killed,” said Nicola Duckworth, director of Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Programme…”

(September 2009) Bosnia the highest-riser in Global Peace Index 2009.

Some encouraging news for Bosnia-Herzegovina – it was the highest-rising country in the 2009 Global Peace Index, moving up 23 places to number 50. The Global Peace Index ranks all countries of the world by their peacefulness.

“Bosnia’s rise to 50th position in the 2009 GPI follows an impressive rise last year,which mainly refected improvements in thescores for measures of safety and security in society. This year, a notable fall in the number of displaced people as a proportion of the population (as recorded by the UNHCR) was a key factor – around one million people have returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina since the end of the war in December 1995, a three-and-a-half-year confict that resulted in some 200,000 deaths and displaced anestimated 2.2 million people, almost one-half of the country’s population.”

The part on Bosnia is on page 31 of the Global Peace Index Report 2009 (pdf).