Name/TitleBag: Udruženje "Žena-Žrtva Rata" Sarajevo
About this objectLarge silvery grey gift bag produced by 'Udruženje "Žena-Žrtva Rata" Sarajevo ~ The association "Women victims of the war" Sarajevo. The bag features a map of Bosnia and Herzegovina, many of which are marked with a red dot. A note explains that the "marked cities are places of mass and systemic rape and sexual abuse."
In April 2018, Sue John from Glasgow Women's Library was part of a delegation of women from Scotland visiting Bosnia with the Remembering Srebrenica Charity, which commemorates the Srebrenica genocide through education and work promoting harmony, diversity and tolerance.
MakerAssociation of the "Women Victims of War" Sarajevo
Period2000s-2010s
Place MadeBosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo
Place NotesUdruženje "Žena-Žrtva Rata" Sarajevo / The association "Women victims of the war" Sarajevo, ul.Hamdije Čemerlića do-br.7, 71000 Novo Sarajevo
Medium and MaterialsOrganic, card and cord
MeasurementsH: 318 x W: 260 x D: 130 mm (can be packed/exhibited flat)
Subject and Association Keywordsviolence against women, survivors
Subject and Association KeywordsSexual violence, rape
Subject and Association Keywordswar & conflict
Subject and Association Descriptionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre:
The Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide, was the July 1995 genocidal killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica during the Bosnian War. It was mainly perpetrated by units of the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska under Ratko Mladić, though the Serb paramilitary unit Scorpions also participated. The massacre was the first legally recognised genocide in Europe since the end of World War II. Before the massacre, the United Nations (UN) had declared the besieged enclave of Srebrenica a "safe area" under its protection. A UN Protection Force contingent of 370 lightly armed Dutch soldiers failed to deter the town's capture and subsequent massacre. A list of people missing or killed during the massacre contains 8,372 names. As of July 2012, 6,838 genocide victims had been identified through DNA analysis of body parts recovered from mass graves; as of July 2021, 6,671 bodies had been buried at the Memorial Centre of Potočari, while another 236 had been buried elsewhere. Some Serbs have claimed the massacre was retaliation for civilian casualties inflicted on Bosnian Serbs by Bosniak soldiers from Srebrenica under the command of Naser Orić. These 'revenge' claims have been rejected and condemned by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the UN. In 2004, in a unanimous ruling on the case of Prosecutor v. Krstić, the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY ruled the massacre of the enclave's male inhabitants constituted genocide, a crime under international law. The ruling was also upheld by the International Court of Justice in 2007. The forcible transfer and abuse of between 25,000 and 30,000 Bosniak Muslim women, children and elderly, when accompanied by the massacre of the men, was found to constitute genocide. In 2002, the government of the Netherlands resigned, citing its inability to prevent the massacre. In 2013, 2014 and 2019, the Dutch state was found liable by its supreme court and the Hague district court, of failing to prevent more than 300 deaths. In 2013, Serbian president Tomislav Nikolić apologised for "the crime" of Srebrenica but refused to call it genocide. In 2005, then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan described the massacre as "a terrible crime – the worst on European soil since the Second World War", and in May 2024, the UN designated July 11 as the annual International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica [continues].
Named CollectionGlasgow Women's Library
Object TypeBag
Object numberGWL-2017-72-4
Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved