During her panel, Rogova provided a brief history of the long struggle of women’s rights activists and organizations in advocating for justice and protection for women who suffered sexual violence during the war in Kosovo. This included extensive advocacy for women’s voices to be heard in post-conflict decision-making processes organized by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and for UNMIK itself to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. UNMIK failed to protect documentation of sexual violence perpetrated or to push for justice, she said. These issues and women’s rights activists’ struggles are detailed in the KWN book 1325 Facts and Fables.

    Advocacy since the passage of UNSCR 1325 in 2000 finally led the Government of Kosovo to adopt an Action Plan for the Implementation of Resolution 1325 in the Republic of Kosovo in Feb. 2014. Further, amendments to Law no. 04/L-054 on the status and the rights of the martyrs, invalids, veterans, members of Kosovo Liberation Army, sexual violence victims of the war, civilian victims and their families in 2014 now provide for recognition of and services for women who suffered sexual violence during the war. This has contributed to some slow shifts in public perceptions and efforts towards an improved institutional response, including through the President of Kosovo’s newly established National Council for Survivors of Sexual Violence.

    Rogova also introduced the film “Three windows and a hanging” about sexual violence perpetrated against women during the war in Kosovo.  

During the conference, participants discussed “strategies on how to become more effective in implementing the commitments under the UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security and the Swiss National Action Plan 1325 to protect women’s and girl’s rights in fragile and conflict-affected countries.” 

Other panellists included Zainab Hawa Bangura, Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict; Manuel Sager, Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); Dr. Monika Hauser, founder and executive member of the board of medica mondiale; Ursula Salesse, Project Director at SDC; Dalia Abd Elhameed, head of the gender program at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights; Danaé van der Straten Ponthoz, a consultant on sexual violence and legal adviser for Track Impunity Always (TRIAL); and Karen Barnes, an independent consultant and a Research Associate in the Politics and Governance team of the Overseas Development Institute.

The conference was organized by the Swiss government and SDC Swiss Development Cooperation