“He had (a) restraining order but he would still approach me, and nothing. He was never punished” said Dina.
Dina* is speaking here to the Atlantic Initiative about her experiences of domestic violence and the judicial system in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
The Atlantic Initiative is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in BiH established in 2009. They research, develop literature and provide education on topics such as women’s security and security risk to BiH. Their report entitled ‘Survivors Speak: Reflections on Criminal Justice System Responses to Domestic Violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina’ provides an in depth look into the landscape of violence in BiH and hears from many survivors.
Dina has left her abusive husband and is currently proceeding with criminal charges, but this doesn’t offer her any protection. Her husband has sometimes taken their teenage son into the woods and called Dina, telling her he will kill their son and himself.
Violence against women isn’t a new trend in BiH. Women were the survivors of systematic rape during the Bosnia War. In an interview with Balkan Insight, Power of Women’s director Branka Antic-Stauber confessed that 90% of survivors that approached her organisation were also victims of wartime rape.
Power of Women is an organisation that provides psychological, medical and legal support to victims based in Tuzla, BiH.
42% of women in Bosnia and Herzegovina experience physical violence in their lifetime. While this figure is similar to those around the world, Bosnian women are normally trapped by economic dependence and a society which supports a patriarchal family life.
But the most glaring insufficiency in how domestic violence is being dealt with in Bosnia, is that suspended sentences are awarded to the majority of perpetrators in BiH.
Why do men do it?
According to the Encyclopaedia of Sex and Gender, domestic violence is defined as “any domestic partner or interfamilial altercation that involves emotional, psychological, verbal or physical abuse”.
There are three main areas of thinking surrounding why men commit domestic violence. The first is the individual level, which describes male aggression as the natural evolutionary need to dominant women, e.g. violence surfaces when men are provoked.
The second approach suggests that family conflict is to blame. The structure of families and the way they deal with stress are the reasons for conflict. The third idea is the modern feminist approach and the most accepted approach today. It suggests that male violence stems from a patriarchal society and sexism.
In Dina’s case, male misogyny and sexism was the root cause of her and her daughter’s abuse.
“He was more violent to our daughter than to our son……..It is normal that her brother, who is 11 years old and who loved his sister, says that his 16-year old sister is a whore who slept with 15 men and that he hates her and want to stab her with knife? That is the attitude my husband passed on to our son” describes Dina.
The link between patriarchy/misogyny and violence against women was never more clear than the use of rape as a war method during the Bosnian War and genocide (1992-1995). It is believed approximately 20,000 to 50,000 women were raped and the majority of the perpetrators were Bosnian Serb forces form the Army of the Republic Srpska.
So why would husband abuse their wives, after they had survived through horrific sexual abuse? Ms Antic-Stauber believes that men couldn’t handle the idea that their wives had been with other people.
“Men are often unable to cope with the fact that their wives belonged to someone else, regardless of the fact that it was an act of violence,” Ms Antic-Stauber explained.
Ms Antic-Stauber then shared a story of a women who was raped by three soliders in 1992. It was only after several years of marriage (she was not married at the time of the rapes) that her husband took issue with it.
“After few years of marriage, the problems started. He was telling me that I was a whore, that I did it voluntarily. I was telling him that it was not the case….. He is aware of that, but he wants to hurt me,” says the unnamed survivor.
Recently Dragoljib Kunarac was charged with using ‘rape as a weapon of war’ at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. But the survivors of wartime rapes have been left to move on with little support from the government, according to Foundation Cure.
Vildana Dzekman, a Foundation Cure member spoke via translator about how war-time rape survivors are almost invisible in Bosnia.
“In the Federation, victims are at least given free health care, but in the Republika they are barely acknowledged, it is like they don’t exist,” says Ms Dzekman.
Suspended Sentences
“A suspended sentence reinforces the batterer’s belief in his rights to use violence to establish power and control over her partner, as well as his perception that such violence will not be punished,” says the ‘Stop Violence Towards Women’ campaign website.
Majda Halilovic PhD works for the Atlantic Initiative and wrote the report Domestic Violence and the BiH judicial system. When she spoke to Ms Halilovic she highlighted that for survivors of domestic violence, suspended sentences are not enough.
“For victims that do go ahead and prosecute and press charge, they don’t see suspended sentences as appropriate especially when it comes to more serious injuries,” Ms Halilovic says.
When perpetrators are given suspended sentences in BiH they are usually along side a psychological or alcohol addiction treatment order (if that applies) and protection order for the survivors. Ms Halilovic found that even when perpetrators violate these orders, the courts do nothing about it.
“They are just expected not to repeat, but even if they do repeat the suspended sentences is not revoked.
When corresponding with Sinancevic from the Foundation of Local Democracy, Sarajevo based human rights NGO whom also run safe houses, she explained that women’s economic dependence on men in BiH is to blame for suspended sentences.
“It is recorded that in the most of the cases the courts consider that (a) fine or a prison sentence would mostly affect women and children victims of violence since in a large number of cases victims are economically dependent (on) the perpetrators,” Sinancevic responded over email.
The Atlantic Initiative report found that the majority of women they interviewed did not appear in court and discovered the judgement through post. They highlighted Boja’s experience who was never asked to appear in court to testify against her husband but later learned that he testified to regretting his actions and the court verdict was decided by this alone.
Many studies in Bosnia and Herzegovina have highlighted that mitigating circumstances are taken into consideration more than aggravating circumstance when it comes to dealing with domestic violence.
The Cornell Universities Legal Information Institutes defines mitigating circumstances as “factors that lessen the severity of culpability of a criminal act” and aggravating circumstances as “factors that increase the severity or culpability of a criminal act”.
Basically it means, that if a perpetrator expresses remorse or tells the court it will never happen again, it is considered highly in the verdict regardless of sincerity and. Ms Halilovic research also claims that in some cases judges referred to abusers as ‘family men’.
Ms Halilovic spoke about the frustration women felt over suspended sentences saying they feel insulted and therefore have misgivings about the justice system.
“Mitigating factors are taken into consideration, like ‘he’s a family man’. This for the victims, is quite problematic. They go ahead and press charges and go through the justice system. They find it quite insulting… they say ‘Well how can he be a family man when he is beating me in front of children?’,” says Ms Halilovic.
In Dina’s case, she was threatened with a firearm (studies show women who are threatened with firearms have a higher risk of fatality) but when it came to sentencing her husband, this level of violence was not reflected in his sentence.
According to latest figures (2010/2011) around 300,000 firearms were registered in Bosnia (BiH only has a population of 3.89 million). This number is thought to be higher due to the large number of unregistered firearms available.
Un-protective measures
Bosnia and Herzegovina is in the unique position of having two major systems of government; the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (capital Sarajevo) and the Republika Srpska (capital Banja Luka). While both governments have individual laws on domestic violence, there is no overarching protections for domestic violence survivors.
In 2005 both the Federation and Republika adopted the Laws on Protection from Domestic Violence. This sought the protection of survivors through restraining orders and removal orders.
Article 21 of the Federations Laws of Protection, states that a “person who fails to act in accordance with the prescribed protective measure shall be fined KM 2,000 to 10,000.” (around 1000 – 5000 euro).
The Organisation for Security and Co-Operation (OSCE) in Europe, reviewed the Laws of Protection in 2009 and found that many officials were unaware of the basic requirement in the Law on Protection and had not benefitted from education and training about the specific nature of domestic violence.
When Amina* (another women) WAS interviewed in the Atlantic Initiative report in 2015, it seemed that not much had changed. Amina was in the middle of a criminal case against her husband, when he violated the order of protection. He was fined KM 1500, which he has never paid and he is still free to live his life.
“He is enjoying his life, has a car, lives in our house with the children, and I am in the safe house, living from Saturday to Saturday, when I see my children again,” Amina says.
Amina continued by explaining that she returned back to the family home after her husband assured her he would not beat her due to the protection order.
“He used to beat me up with those thick beer glasses and I am still uncomfortable when I see them. He was strangling me, and he grabbed a scalpel…. He beat me for probably one hour. His mother and father were sitting outside and they did not come inside and help me even though the door was open. I said I would call the police and he said ‘whore, if you call police, I will slaughter you.’ After some time, I managed to grab my purse and escape,” explain Amina.
Suspended sentences and un-supervised protection orders give perpetrators the ability to walk back into a survivor’s life and with no fear of punishment. Studies show it makes perpetrators more likely to reoffended and only increase the chances of the cycle of violence continuing.
Reporting the violence and what happens next
Leaving an abusive relationship or reporting instances to the police is a difficult process for all women. Factors such as economic reliance, children and fear all play into this.
But when reporting the violence to police, studies have shown that how police react and deal with domestic violence cases can either uplift or squash a survivor’s spirit.
The Atlantic Initiative paper suggest that a “negative or judgmental attitude by police may discourage victims from seeking help from police or the justice system in the future”.
While some women in the study receive positive and sympathetic attitudes from the police, the majority felt that they were ‘victim-blamed’ and encourage to reconcile with their partners.
Ema*, had called the police on several occasions after severe beatings from her husband, but the police never arrested him. Instead they reinforced the idea that Bosnia is a patriarchal and misogynist society in the private/family realm.
“(The police said) You can live together, everything will be fine… Now, go on young lady, and make us some coffee,” says Ema.
Amina explained that she was too ashamed to report the violence, and only made it out of the relationship after her adult son reported the violence.
“I would not have reported (my husband), our son did that… I was ashamed to tell anyone (what was happening) so I put up with humiliation, beatings, swearing, spitting… He used to beat me up, take off my clothes, and make me stand naked on the balcony so that neighbours would see me,” says Amina.
Safe houses and women’s refuges are an important aspect in dealing with domestic violence. They offer transitional/emergency living for women and children escaping abuse relationship. Most refuges offer in-house counselling and provide tools to assist women in leaving these relationships and starting new lives.
Currently in Bosnia and Herzegovina there are nine safe houses for female survivors of domestic violence; three in the Republika of Srpska and six in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In 2015, two safe houses in Mostar (located in the Federation) closed due to lack of funding. Safe houses in the rest of the Federation are under threat with the announcement that government would alter the structure of safe houses, changing their administrative layout to an institution, making them more structured, less efficient and cost more money to run.
Sarajevo Open Centre (SOC) is a non-governmental organisation based in Sarajevo that deals with LGBTI and women’s human rights issues. Their headquarters in Sarajevo has no signage and is located in a residential neighbourhood; five minutes’ walk from the centre of town.
The office is bright, open, and friendly. However, the two heavy steel doors you need to pass through to get into the office are foreboding. Maida Zagorac, a program coordinator at SOC explains that the NGO has only been dealing with domestic violence on a daily basis since December 2015.
Zagorac continues by saying that in the Federation, safe houses are supposed to receive around 120 000 euros per year, but this isn’t what happens in reality.
“Safe houses should get 120,000 euros each but they are giving 180,000 euros to ALL safe houses so it is barely enough for around 10% of their cost,” Zagorac says.
There are many reasons women end up safe house and how they all got there. For some women they follow the traditional pathway, they report the abuse to the police, the police call social workers and the social workers help the women move to the safe houses.
The Patriarchy
In some western countries, the domestic violence ambassador and champions are both male and female. But when visiting Sarajevo and speaking to NGOs, the only people championing domestic violence are women and it is clear that the issue is still very much seen as a women’s issue.
What links all of this together is the seemingly invisible patriarchy and sexism in Bosnia. While not tangible when on the streets, it is in the responses of the police, the lack of funding for safe houses and the way perpetrators are sentenced.
Almost all NGOs interviewed spoke about economic dependence being the root cause why women won’t leave abusive relationships.
According to the World Bank figures BiH has the fourth highest levels of unemployment for women of working age (of the recorded data). Around 30% of females who are working age were unemployed in 2015. Compared to 25% of working age males who were unemployed (latest figures in 2014).
This establishes men as the primary money-earnings in heterosexual relationships. Traditional family values are also the norm in BiH. The wives are expected to tend to the family home, look after children and satisfy their husband’s sexual needs.
At one stage, Ema returned to her parent’s home in order to escape her violent husband. Her parents were sympathetic in the beginning, but once her husband apologised and Ema found out she was pregnant, her father made her return to the traditional family set up.
“I stayed with my parents for two months and then he came with his uncle and said that it wouldn’t happen again and he apologised. I didn’t want to go back but my father told me to, because of the baby… I returned to him, thinking that he had changed, but on the fifth day he beat me so badly,” says Ema.
While the patriarchy and misogyny aren’t tangible in public, Foundation Cure (which claims to be Bosnian’s only feminist group) believes that Bosnia is inherently anti-feminist.
“We are the only women’s-focused NGO in Bosnia and Herzegovina to call ourselves a feminist group, people from other organisations might call themselves feminist but the organisation themselve will never come out and say it. They are too afraid they will be cast aside,” a passionate and quick talking Marija Vuletic, from Foundation Cure explained.
Foundation Cure gives these feminist quotes our during their educational programs.
The patriarchy and misogyny of Bosnia and Herzegovina was never more tangible than in the systematic rape of women in the Bosnian War and genocide (1992-1995). The majority of rapes were carried out by Bosnian Serb forces from the Army of the Republika Srpska, with estimates that 20,000 to 50,000 women were raped.
Recently Dragoljib Kunarac was charged with using ‘rape as a weapon of war’ at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. But the survivors of wartime rapes have been left to move on with little support from the government, according to Foundation Cure.
Vildana Dzekman, a Foundation Cure member spoke via translator about how war-time rape survivors are almost invisible in Bosnia.
“In the Federation, victims are at least given free health care, but in the Republika they are barely acknowledged, it is like they don’t exist,” says Ms Dzekman.
Slow change
While little progress is being made in the judicial system, the OSCE are making head way into how the police gather and organise data on domestic violence.
In 2015, in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina the OSCE along with the Network of Women Police Officers introduced the database for domestic violence. This database would see all information reported to police, social workers, safe houses and the domestic violence hotline stored in the same system.
Elmaja Bavcic, national programme advisor for gender strategies for the OSCE Mission to BiH, says the main achievement of the database program is that women don’t have to re-tell their stories multiple times to different organisation, which can be a painful experience.
“It is a tool that connects the different sectors and makes it easier to follow up on what sort of protective measure have been issued and are they being followed through,” Ms Bavcic explained over coffee.
Foundation Cure, also tries to solve the domestic violence issue in a practical way, by educating high school students about abusive relationships and sexual health.
Ms Vuletic, spoke animatedly about how changing perspectives through education is the most vital tool to combatting domestic violence and sexism.
“Street actions are fine and conferences are fine, but education is what changes people’s mind and the earlier it starts the better,” says Ms Vuletic.
By educating high school students about young relationships, what domestic violence is and how to leave an abusive relationship Foundation Cure believes they can solve the problem before it happens.
“So what they know about is their relationships, but they don’t know about the abuse that could happen in their relationships and how it is a problem… We teach them that a bad word is as abusive as a punch… We get to their level and talk about how they are supposed to treat their partner because it can all end up abusive later on,” continued Ms Vuletic.
Change appears to be coming very slowly to Bosnia and Herzegovina when it comes to domestic violence and supporting female survivor of war. Though until the entrenched patriarchy and sexism used when dealing with these matters, BiH might never overcome the issue.
Ms Sinancevic from FLD believes that change is coming but it is slow due to family violence only being discussed recently.
“Since the violence in the family is a relatively new issue in (the) sense of legal protection, the perception of family violence within society is changing, slowly but continually,” says Ms Sinancevic.
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