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<\/h1>\nActivist Vildana D\u017eekman became involved in women’s human rights to challenge the hinders the Dayton agreement has led to for women’s equal participation in society. Photo from feminist art festival Pitchwise.<\/p>\n
\u201dIt has been a huge barrier to the development of a democratic society!\u201d 20 years after the Dayton peace agreement ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, women human rights defender Lidija \u017divanovic\u2019s judgement of its consequences is harsh.<\/strong><\/p>\n After several years of brutal armed conflict, the Presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia 14 December 1995 signed the Dayton Peace Accord<\/a>. An agreement that also came to lay the ground for the constitution of the new Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p>\n \u201dAt first, we were full of hope. I had na\u00efve thoughts that we would return to our normal lives and that we all, including women, would contribute to building our future,\u201d says Lidija \u017divanovic, activist during the war and later leader of the human rights organisation Helsinki Citizens Assembly.<\/p>\n What went wrong, she says, was that the peace agreement, and therefore subsequently the constitution, totally lacked clear measures to make sure that Bosnia and Herzegovina would become a state that was gender equal. Instead it had all its focus on peoples\u2019 origin \u2013 that Bosniaks, Bosnian-Croats and Bosnian-Serbs as groups would get their specific share of the power.<\/p>\n \u201dThe organisation and functions of the country were based exclusively on ethnicity. Since then, ethno-political elites have in words declared their support to build a more equal society, but through their daily politics they have been destroying key human values,\u201d Lidija \u017divanovic says.<\/p>\n The peace agreement divided the country into two entities \u2013 The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovia and Republika Srpska, and since 2000 there is also the neutral Br\u010dko District \u2013 ten cantons and a number of municipalities. All these levels have their own laws and regulations, making it incredibly difficult to get political national agreements on anything.<\/p>\n Gender study of Dayton<\/strong>In 2000, Kvinna till Kvinna published a study of the Dayton agreement from a women\u2019s rights and equality perspective. Already then its devastating effects were cleary visible.Find<\/span> out more in the reportEngendering the Peace Process<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201dThe division is deepening every year. Women are ignored in Bosnia and Herzegovina, since the constitution does not recognize them as through the guarantee of women\u2019s rights. Wherever you scratch on the surface you find segregation, discrimination and marginalization. For example, maternity benefits differs between cantons, and in some there are none at all! I ask myself is a woman in Tuzla worth less than a woman in Sarajevo? According to this structure she is,\u201d says women human rights activists Vildana D\u017eekman.<\/p>\n Vildana D\u017eekman was 8 years old when the Dayton agreement came into place. Growing up in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina she says she often wondered about things, like the black, censored pages in her history textbooks, or why there were hardly ever any women present when important political decisions were being negotiated. This eventually led her to the feminist organisation CURE Foundation<\/a>, where she has been active for five years.<\/p>\n \u201dIt was actually during a seminar by Kvinna till Kvinna that I became aware of how invisible we women are. That the shadow of the constitution stretches throughout society, where women\u2019s voices are not listened to and our actions are ignored, That gave me a strong motive to work for a changed constitution and women being an equal part of the process,\u201dshe says.<\/p>\n Both Vildana D\u017eekman and Lidija \u017divanovic see drastical amendments of the constitution as the only way for Bosnia and Herzegovina to ever become a united, democratic and gender equal state.<\/p>\n Kvinna till Kvinna\u2019s Senior Advisor Eva Zill\u00e9n, who was been active in our work in the Balkans since during the war, agrees:<\/p>\n![\"Lidija_Zivanovic\"](\"https:\/\/gradjankezaustavnepromjene.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/12\/lidija_zivanovic.jpg?w=656\")
<\/p>\nFocus on ethnicity<\/h4>\n
Discriminatory differences divide<\/h4>\n
Censored history books<\/h4>\n
Breading ground for nationalism<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/kvinnatillkvinna.se\/en\/files\/2015\/12\/EvaZillen-280x300.jpg\" "\\"Eva")
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