International Women’s Day (March 8)

On the occasion of International Women’s Day (March 8), the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) would like to draw attention to the alarming number of femicides in Bosnia and Herzegovina. So far, the local authorities have acted completely unprepared – and they are not providing affected individuals adequate protection. 

“Given the country’s envisaged accession to the EU, it is now up to the EU and also the German Federal Government to demand reforms regarding legislation and law enforcement – and to support these mechanisms wherever possible, to ensure better protection for women,” demanded Jasna Causevic, STP expert on genocide prevention and the Responsibility to Protect. “German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock failed to address this topic during her visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, although a feminist foreign policy is supposed to be one of her goals.” In the course of her visit a few days ago, Baerbock stated that expanding the EU is a geopolitical necessity that would make Europe stronger. “That’s understandable, but it is also crucial that women are equally involved in further talks regarding a possible EU accession – especially against the background of increasing femicides,” Causevic emphasized.

According to a study by the Gender Center of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, almost half of women in Bosnia and Herzegovina (48 percent) have experienced some form of violence since the age of fifteen, almost four in ten women (38 percent) by a partner or non-partner. “However, only few perpetrators are prosecuted criminally. Typically, if at all, they receive very lenient penalties. The killing of a wife is often classified as domestic violence and not as aggravated murder, which could be punished with long prison sentences of up to 45 years. 

“This most extreme form of gender-based violence is a structural problem in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Oftentimes, affected women had sought protection and informed the police or a court beforehand – but without receiving adequate help,” explained Belma Zulcic, Director of the STP Section Sarajevo. “It is a total failure of everyone responsible,” Causevic criticized. “Further specific regional factors that exacerbate this type of violence are uncontrolled access to weapons, unprocessed trauma, and the transgenerational passing on of traumatic experiences to the next generation.”

Together with the STP Section Sarajevo, the STP Germany demands the government of Bosnia to legally define femicide as a special form of serious murder – to ensure that these crimes can be adequately recorded, legally prosecuted, and sanctioned. The fight against femicides and gender-based violence should become one of the country’s political priorities, the human rights organization stated in its appeal to the Bosnian government.