| Posted: April 18 2005,09:01 |
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PROGRESS: Has your organization seen
progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of
action and in your constituency during the first half of the Decade? |
During
the wars that began in 1991 in the former Yugoslavia, women outnumbered
men as victims of war. Not only subjects of direct violence, from
rape to forced prostitution, they also emerged as victims of domestic
violence, of economic, social and political discrimination, and of
sexist and political defamation. However, women were not only
victims but also actively opposed war, violence and nationalism.
In the period 1991-2001 autonomous women’s groups took part in
many campaigns, striving for peace and insisting on a process of
confrontation and reconciliation. Women’s groups, instead of
accepting the image of women as victims or as objects of sexist
language and manipulation by the media, imposed the issue of women’s
human rights. Throughout the region women initiated peace
exchanges, dialogue amongst women activists, and made numerous
proclamations demanding an end to war and violence. Women have
founded the highest number of NGOs that promote women's rights, peace
and tolerance, human rights, and democracy.
However, despite
this legacy, the past decade has seen a distinct lack of progress
towards a culture of peace in Serbia and the wider Balkan region.
It is helpful to divide these years into two periods for
addressing this question: namely, during the first phase from the
fall of the Milosevic regime on October 5th, 2000 to the assassination
of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic on March 11th, 2003, noticeable
progress had been made. Public fear was diminished, with citizens
more willing to talk openly, and they were hopeful about the future.
However, no real change was effected on the institutional level,
and the new government did not succeed to create a real discontinuation
with the politics of the previous regime. Therefore, the second
period from the assassination of Prime Minister Djindjic to the present
day can be characterized by a return to the criminal past and legacy of
the Milosevic regime. On the institutional level, the wartime
mafia and political leaders of the previous criminal regime have
reappeared. This was most apparent during the elections of 2004
when the most radical right-wing party returned to legislative power.
Since then, there has been absolute stagnation in cooperation
with the Hague Tribunal, which is a direct manifestation of the lack of
political will and desire to face with the past. On the cultural
plane, public manifestations of hate speech and nationalism have again
publicly reappeared, with the justification of war crimes and
normalization of militaristic nationalism now mainstream.
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OBSTACLES: What are the most important obstacles that have prevented progress?
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Problems
that Women in Black, Belgrade currently faces include the following:
hate, drastic social injustice, inequality, the feminization of
poverty, organized crime, and the connection of the war mafia with the
current government – all these issues are present in the region, making
it impossible for people (in particular women) to gain autonomy over
their own lives. The government that was created since the fall
of Slobodan Miloševic has not radically removed itself from the
politics of war and war crimes. We believe that without serious
confrontation with the recent military past, it is impossible to
achieve reconciliation, peace, and democratization.
Ethno-nationalism, the dichotomy of "us" and "them", a constant
creation of enemies, xenophobia, etc. are still overarching cultural
models. In addition, strong theocratic tendencies in society that
undermine the secular or laic character of the state including
retrograde para-religious forces within the Serbian Orthodox Church
(SPC) and other religious communities have been allowed more public
space and are being treated (especially the Serbian Orthodox Church) as
equal political collocutors. The distortion of the secular
character of Serbian society represents a very deliberate and covert
rise in the influence of fundamentalist forces. This dangerous
process is one that needs to be better recognized and understood by the
public, as well as seen in terms of its global context and
significance.
Apathy, hopelessness, and the difficult
process of transition and privatization have limited the growth of a
strong civil society and culture of peace; the decreased interest and
involvement of international institutions and organizations in the area
has only further worsened this situation. Opportunities to
include greater representation of women in high level decision-making
positions on conflict, peace, and security matters, in peace
negotiations, and in conflict prevention and resolution have also been
missed. Therefore, Women in Black and other NGOs currently face
the formidable task of developing a political culture within civil
society directed at overcoming the stereotypes, prejudices, and
retrograde ideologies (including sexism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and
militarism) that are derivatives of an authoritarian patriarchal
structure and mentality.
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ACTIONS: What actions have been
undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence during the first half of the Decade?
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Women
in Black, Belgrade (WiB) has been active since 1991 as a peace group
which has been particularly conspicuous in denouncing war crimes
committed by the Miloševic regime, as well as in cooperating with peace
and civic movements and groups in other war-affected countries of the
former Yugoslavia. On October 9th 1991, Women in Black in
Belgrade began a permanent, public, nonviolent protest against war,
against the nationalistic and militant regime in Serbia, against ethnic
cleansing and all forms of discrimination. It has been very
successful in organizing and reaching out to women from all sides of
the conflicts regardless of their ethnicity, religion, political and/or
educational background.
Our Mission consists of the following:
- creating space for voices of women against war and all kinds of violence;
-
encouraging and organizing women's nonviolent resistance to patriarchy,
especially to all wars, all kinds of militarism, ethnical
homogenization, and fundamentalism;
- making visible women's nonviolent resistance through street actions, performances, theatre, and campaigns;
-
building women's solidarity network across state, ethnic, racial,
religious, sexual and all others divisions and boundaries,
-
encouraging the creation of interethnic/intercultural peace coalitions
and the participation of women in nonviolent resolution of conflict by
peace negotiations;
- organizing women's education in the themes of
feminism, pacifism, and antimilitarism, stressing the balance between
theory and experience and between activism and academic knowledge;
-
confronting with the past from a feminist-pacifist approach and through
public demands and petitions to extradite to the Hague Tribunal all
persons accused of war crimes;
- creating an alternative
history/history of otherness/herstory by publishing books, readers, and
leaflets on women's nonviolent resistance, and
feminist-antimilitaristic theory;
- denouncing the ties between local and global militarization and the militarization of our everyday lives;
-
Demanding demilitarization and disarmament through peace education,
street actions, campaigns, petitions, civic disobedience, etc.
Women in Black, Belgrade’s main activities include:
•
Realization of street activities, especially antiwar actions and ones
calling for public acceptance of responsibility for war and war crimes
• Development of alternative women’s policy (networking on the basis of antinationalistic/feminist/antimilitaristic aspects)
• Alternative education (workshops, seminars, lectures, panel discussions, and trainings)
• Publishing activities (recording an alternative history/herstory, compilation of educational readers, etc.)
• Insisting on confrontation with the past – accountability for war and war crimes
•
Promotion of antimilitarism, distribution of information regarding
conscientious objection and different aspects of demilitarization
• Challenging the system of patriarchy – deconstruction of masculinity/work with both male and female youth
• Support for victims of war and all forms of oppression
• Initiation of legislative initiatives (advocacy, lobbying)
Since
the first public demonstration in 1991 to protest the Milosevic regime,
Women in Black, Belgrade has organized over 500 public vigils,
demonstrations, and performances in Belgrade as well as across Serbia
and Montenegro. As one of the founders of the International
Network of Women's Solidarity Against War / International Network of
Women in Black, which brings together women from all the countries of
the former Yugoslavia, Europe and all other continents, we have
organized eleven international network conferences. The
conferences promote women's solidarity across all ethnic, racial and
religious divisions and divides, encouraging the creation of
interethnic and intercultural peace coalitions and the participation in
nonviolent conflict resolution strategies.
Since the
beginning, WiB has been extensively involved in alternative educational
activities throughout Serbia as well as the broader region,
particularly in the spheres of civic responsibility and political
empowerment, sexual and reproductive rights, gender nation identity,
and reconciliation. The project Traveling Women’s Peace Workshops
from 1998-2003 was implemented in four different regions of Serbia as
well as in Montenegro. More than 1,000 women from 50 cities
attended these workshops, which aimed at encouraging the development of
civil society, women’s self-organizing, autonomy and solidarity, and
the promotion of civic and peaceful values.
The project Power
and Otherness in 2001 included participants from three ethnically
heterogeneous regions in Serbia (Sandzak, Banat, and southern Serbia)
and was directed at recognizing differences as a basis for creative
dialogue and cohabitation. The project Street Law was implemented
from 2002-2003, and was a training program in human rights and
democracy for teachers that Women in Black realized together with the
Forum for Freedom in Education from Zagreb. The 59 participants
who successfully completed the program have been implementing their
acquired knowledge and skills in their local environments, spreading a
culture of democracy to their students. The success of the
program earned it a place on the list of recommended programs of the
Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia as a supplementary
education program for teachers. We have organized numerous other
educational activities, including a series of panel discussions on the
Hague Tribunal and confronting the past.
The educational activity
Mutual Support – Women’s Solidarity at Work has been unfolding since
the beginning of 2001, with the aim to empower women, to encourage
autonomy, broaden public space for women, promote peace policy in
everyday life, and particularly, to encourage the creation of
autonomous women's groups and to lend support to groups in their
initial stages. Fifteen workshops and five lectures were held
across the region. The contents of the workshops are defined upon
consultation with the women from the local community, their main
feature being tackling topics that have a bearing on the women's
autonomous movement and the civic society in general.
As of the
end of 1999, more organized activities of the Network for Conscientious
Objection began, and in this spirit, several gatherings were organized.
In addition, the Network launched a number of campaigns: for the
legitimating of the right to conscientious objection, in May 2000, in
more than twenty cities of Serbia and Montenegro, and also from
December 2000 until May 2001, in more than thirty cities of Serbia.
From December 2000 until May 2001, the action went on for gathering
signatures for the shortening of the military service and recognizing
the right to conscientious objection; the action was carried out,
together with other organizations, in dozens of cities throughout
Serbia and it made a very important impact on the demilitarization of
the minds, confrontation with the past and above all, on sensitizing
the public for the issue of conscientious objection.
Educational
activities on demilitarization of the mind and deconstruction of
patriarchy continued during 2003 with a series of workshops in various
parts of Serbia. These workshops are mostly oriented toward the young.
Cooperation has been continued with other organizations that deal with
this issued on the legislative level.
In the past period we
have divided our activities into the following categories: Street
Actions, Women’s Peace Network, Common Support, Conscientious Objection
and Antimilitarism, and Publishing Activities.
As far as
street actions are concerned, it the past 6-month period these have
included the antimilitaristic action “Extradite them!” by which we
demanded extradition of all those accused for war crimes to the Hague
Tribunal, the action “Not in our name” on December 9th – delivering the
demand for prompt and unconditional extradition of all accused of war
crimes to the Hague Tribunal and for the repealing of the Law providing
financial support to accused war criminals before the Hague Tribunal
(passed on March 30th, 2004) as well as the demand for parliamentary
and civil control of the army, equalization of the duration of military
and civil service, etc. These demands were delivered to the
Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro and Parliament of Serbia on the
occasion of the International Day of Human Rights. Over 60 NGOs
from Serbia and Montenegro signed the demands and joined the action
initiated by Women in Black, YUCOM, the Humanitarian Law Fund and
Women’s Studies from Belgrade.
The Women's Peace Network
-Spreading and Empowering is a continuation of the project Traveling
Women's Peace Workshops, which has been unfolding since July 2002,
comprising numerous annual workshops, seminars, tribunes, and meetings.
The most recent activity in this category has been the beginning
of our project Women, Peace, Democracy which was begun this February,
2005 with the first of three regional training programs in Zlatar,
Serbia, and with our first of two international training programs on
the occasion of March 8th, International Women’s Day, in Novi Pazar,
Serbia.
In the area of conscientious objection, in
addition to campaigns for civil control of the army and equalization of
the duration of military and civil service, as well as street actions
and performances of antimilitaristic character, Women in Black has
organized a series of workshops and seminars. Our most recent
activity in this area is the campaign “No to the Army”, the collection
of signatures for the total revocation of army service, which is being
realized across Serbia.
In addition to these activities,
in the previous 6-month period Women in Black has announced,
independently or in cooperation with close organizations, numerous
announcements with critical review of the tendencies of empowering the
spirit and atmosphere of clero-nationalism, the clericalization of
society, and the interference of religious communities, above all the
Serbian Orthodox Church, in state affairs and the educational system.
Our announcements have expressed the demand for total and
unconditional cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, as well as the
appeal for facing with the past, etc.
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ADVICE: What advice would you like to
give to the Secretary-General and the General Assembly to promote a
culture of peace and nonviolence during the second half of the Decade? |
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PARTNERSHIPS: What partnerships and
networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the
global movement for a culture of peace? |
Women
in Black, Belgrade (WiB) cooperates with many organizations in Serbia
and Montenegro, and well as organizations from the states of the former
Yugoslavia. Women in Black started the women's peace network on a
regional (Women's Peace Network/Network of Women in Black of Serbia and
Montenegro) and global level (International Network of Women's
Solidarity Against War/International Network of Women in Black).
Through our own network and cooperation with women from
Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina (since 1995 to present), Women in
Black, Belgrade was present in Potocari/Srebrenica every year from
2000-2004 on July 11th for the burial and commemoration of victims of
one of the largest massacres of the 20th century. Since the fall
of dictatorship in Serbia (October 2000), our cooperation has increased
with groups from Croatia, resulting in joint educational projects, as
well as exchange projects with women peace groups in Bosnia and
Herzegovina and Kosovo.
Women in Black is a member of following
international networks: International Women in Black Network, War
Resisters’ International (WRI), Women's Global Network for Reproductive
Rights (WGNRR), Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), Nonviolent
Peaceforce (NPF), Peace Bureau International/International Federation
for Reconciliation (PBI/IFOR), Amnesty International, and Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
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PLANS: What new engagements are
planned by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence in the second half of the Decade (2005-2010)? |
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Postal address of organization
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Jug Bogdanova 18/5
11000 Belgrade
Serbia and Montenegro
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E-mail address of organization
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stasazen@eunet.yu
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Website address of organization
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www.wib-zeneucrnom-belgrade.org
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Highest priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Equality of women
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Second priority action domain of a culture of peace
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education for a culture of peace
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Highest priority country of action (or international)
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Serbia and Montenegro
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Second priority country of action (or international)
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Balkan States
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