International Symposium on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Beyond

Bosnia and Hercegovina – Presentation

Palais d’Egmont, Brussels, Belgium21-23 June 2006

Session Five

Designing and Implementing National Action Plans for Addressing Sexual Violence for Conflict and

Recovery: Examples from the Field

Concurrent Session III

Presenter Dr. Nada Ler Sofronic

Elements of the Action Plan

• Elements discussed according to:

a) Commitee of Ministers Council of Europe Recommendation 2002 5 on the Protection of Women against Violence

b) UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and General Recommendations 19 of the CEDAW Committee;

c) The ICTY Rulings on War Rape as a War Crime

d) Concluding comments regarding VAW to State Report of the CEDAW Committee -15 May-2 June 2006 Bosnia and Herzegovina

e) National institutional framework

Elements of the Action Plan

• State Policy / Strategy;

• Legal Framework implemented in practice;

• Governmental institution / specific bodies established;

• Special policies (different areas of concern) and action plans;

• SGBV Budget;

• NGOs and civil society associations budget

• SGBV, a specific emerging issue (BiH post-conflict country);

• Policy and advocacy actions needed – gap between de jura and de-facto;

• Implementation, M&E of Action Plan;

• Judiciary, health, education, social protection etc, also victims’ rehabilitation policies;

• Each area of concern has its own budget for implementation, M&E - Government provision, different foundations and donors, international community

Elements of the Action Plan

• BiH Legislation on violence and trafficking in women;

• Information for victims per laws;

• Intervention programmes

• Special conditions and measures needed to avoid revictimisation and ensure appropriate protection;

• Details codes of conduct, rules and guidelines needed;

• Information about rights, available services and legal aid;

• Establishment of free legal aid, programmes for the perpetrators,

• Mandatory education and state regulated trainings on violence, sexual violence against women;

• Media law provisions;• Codes of conduct, guidelines for media;• Media watch organisations;• Media education and mandatory education about media

intervention regarding SGBV;• Statistics, facts and figures comprehensive statistics and

common indicators for scale of violence evaluation;• Systematic and integrated gender disaggregated data

collection

Elements of the Action Plan

Further Steps

• Elements of the action plan developed into strategies and activities with concrete tasks, deadlines, responsible actors, budget;

• Institutions, special bodies for implementation and M&E set up;

• Budget worked out, including financial support for the NGO work in the field;

• Multisectoral cooperation (police, health social services, education, judiciary and NGOs) with signed protocol in place

Further Steps

• Review mandatory school curricula at all levels, including university and SGBV issues included;

• Introduced pre- service and in service training programmes for all law enforcement professional;

• Existing media laws revised and SGBV perspective incorporated (sexist terminology and stereotypes about women);

• Statistics system developed, common indicators defined, denominators defined, systematic data collection started and registration of cases methodology adopted by all law enforcement professionals

BiH Stakeholders’ Meeting

13 June 2006

STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN!

Thank you