On June 18, Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) representatives visited the Government Commission on Recognition and Verification of the Status of Sexual Violence Victims during the Kosovo Liberation War.

The aim of this visit was to gain a closer understanding with the progress of the process of recognizing and verifying the status of Sexual Violence Victims during the war, know the challenges that the Commission faces, as well as express KWN’s support for the tireless and transparent work ethic of the Commission.

“We have been part of this Commission’s journey since its establishment and we know it’s impartial and transparency,” said Ariana Qosaj-Mustafa, Chair of the KWN’s Board.

Whereas, Minire Begaj-Balaj, the Chairperson of the Commission, has shared with the staff the challenges and the work of this Commission.

“The work is done and efficiency of the Commission should not be measured solely by the number of approved applications: we should take into consideration the fact that dealing with such cases sometimes means handling a single case up to six times as a result of incomplete files. In this way we would underhand that the figures for our work are mathematically higher than the number of approved cases, she said.

Appreciating the commitment of the Commission, Igballe Rogova, KWN’s Executive Director said “As KWN has always pointed out, the will of the survivors should be respected in relation to the application process for recognition and verification of their status, because not everyone wants to apply. Therefore, providing an encouraging application environment, as well as providing the survivors with support and a confidential and impartial process is very important to us”.

Regarding this visit KWN has issued a Press Release, which you can read HERE.