As we previously have done, we are issuing a short report of our most important activities in the recent period.
If you are interested in more detailed information, let us know. We will gladly send you further information.
Street Actions
In this period, our street actions were connected to the commemoration of important dates—the crimes committed in our name, as well as actions commemorating 15 years of important actions from the history of the antiwar resistance in Serbia and 15 years of Women in Black – women's visible resistance to the war and the aggression of the Serbian regime.
In this period, we also organized actions connected to important international dates, as well as actions of global solidarity.
October 8: a candle light vigil marked 15 years of antiwar resistance in Belgrade (October 8, 1991 – October 8, 2006) at the same place (in front of the Presidency of Serbia Building and the Belgrade City Assembly) where for six months in the fall of 1991 and winter of 1992, there were daily antiwar actions in solidarity with all rebels against war and for everyone killed in war. This action was organized by Women in Black and the Fund for Humanitarian Law.
October 18: ‘In Commemoration of Deserters,’ a performance in Belgrade to mark the fifteenth anniversary of nonviolent antiwar resistance in Serbia.
November 9: ‘We’re Stopping Fascism—We’re Building Solidarity,’ a performance on The International Day against Fascism and Anti-Semitism. We held the performance together with The Querria Center from Belgrade.
November 18: We were present at the commemoration in Vukovar and participated in Mimohod on the 15th anniversary of the fall of Vukovar. Women in Black Network activists placed a wreath on which ‘Forgive Us’ was written. Marking the places of crimes committed in our name is an extraordinarily important part of confronting the past and transitional justice from a feminist standpoint. Forty-two activists of The Women in Black Network - Serbia participated in this action. They were from Belgrade, Novi Sad, Zrenjanin, Niš, Leskovac, Vlasotince, Kruševac, Kraljevo, Tutin, Novi Pazar, and Velika Plana.
December 2: ‘Stop the Siege of Gaza!’ in Republic Square in Belgrade. This action was organized in dozens of cities throughout the world and sponsored by Women in Black and The Women and Peace Coalition. Through this action, we expressed solidarity with the endangered Palestinian civilian population and with the Israeli women’s peace movement.
December 10:, this action was organized on International Human Rights Day with the Querria Center, Act Women—a group from Belgrade and Novi Sad that does politically engaged women’s art, The Autonomous Women’s Center, Labris, and other nongovernmental organizations. In addition to protesting against the violation of human rights in Serbia, leaflets were distributed and there was a performance against violence against women as part of 16 days of activism against violence against women.
Confronting the Past – A Feminist Approach
We continued this educational project which is comprised of many segments. In this reporting period, we carried out the following activities:
The street actions on October 8 and 18, as well as November 18 were described in the previous section.
Political Memory as a Civic Responsibility - Remembering the Resistance: as a positive dimension of confronting the past and to creating an alternative model of transitional justice and in the framework of this ‘new’ segment, we organized the following activities:
Always Disobedient – Our 15 Years: a conference on October 7-8 to mark 15 years of Women in Black. The conference was comprised of the following panel discussions and workshops:
• ‘Our 15 Years – We Remember ’91:’ recalling the history of Women in Black’s resistance, the beginning of the group and the antiwar resistance in Serbia—the most important element of which was antiwar civil initiatives, women’s peace actions, and the men (deserters and conscientious objectors) who refused to go to war. Antiwar activists, founders of Women in Black and other antiwar initiatives, remembered the important historical legacy of Women in Black and civil society in Serbia. These participants were not only from Belgrade, but also from Vojvodina.
• The workshops ‘Always Active’ and ‘Always Disobedient’ continued the work of the panel discussion.
Eighty-three women activists from the Women in Black Network—Serbia participated in this conference. The participants were from Belgrade, Novi Sad, Vrbas, Bečej, Kikinda, Novi Pazar, Boljevac, Leskovac, Vlasotince, Pirot, Dimitrovgrad, Kruševac, Kraljevo, Pančevo, Bor and Niš. We also had participants from Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Pristina, Kosovo; and Zagreb, Croatia.
In addition to this, other activities were organized to mark the fifteenth anniversary of Women in Black:
Always Disobedient: a screening of the documentary film about Women in Black directed by Jasmina Tešanović and Jelena Marković in the Center for Cultural Decontamination in Belgrade on the night of October 7. An audio-visual work by the Skart artistic group on Women in Black’s principles of peace politics was also presented.
An exhibit of photography and published work of Women in Black was also held in The Center for Cultural Decontamination.
Two hundred and fifty people participated in these activities and in the ‘party’ and socializing in the courtyard of the Center for Cultural Decontamination on the night of October 7.
‘Women Ask:’ a women’s peace initiative started in October 2006, not only to remember the antiwar resistance but to demand that all authorized institutions in Serbia respond to the political situation which marked the 1990s. Still today, institutions relativize and negate. They questions are, among other things, connected to the number of civilian victims of the wars from 1991-1999, the number of men violently mobilized, the number of men who refused violence and illegal mobilization, the number of mobilized refugees, the number of young men who left the country to flee the mobilization of refugees, the number of people made permanently disabled by war injuries, and the number of victims in mass graves in Serbia. Unfortunately, only a few institutions had responded to these demands by the end of 2006.
15 Years of Women’s Peace Activism - 15 Years of Nonviolent Resistance in Serbia: a series of discussions and screenings of the film ‘Always Disobedient’ and the audio-visual work of the Skart group on the peace politics and principles of Women in Black. These tribunals, in which activists from Women in Black—Belgrade participated, were organized with the help of local groups of The Women in Black Network and similar organizations.
This activity was held in the following cities:
• Kikinda, on October 17 in the National Library, together with the group ŽAR (Women’s Alternative Workshop). On this occasion, the photography exhibit on the activities of Women in Black was also presented.
• Zaječar, on October 20, organized by the ‘Neda’ peace group.
• Leskovac, on October 27, organized by the Women’s Center—Leskovac and held in their meeting space.
• Zrenjanin, on November 10 in the Cultural Center, organized by The Youth Initiative for Human Rights.
• Bečej, on November 13, in the Bečej Municipal Assembly Building, together with the Center for Antiwar Action of Bečej. After the film screening and discussion, a candlelight vigil was organized to remember the strong antiwar resistance in Bečej during the 1990s.
• Novi Sad, on November 28, organized by and held in the meeting space of NLO (The Novi Sad Lesbian Organization).
• Kruševac, on December 5, organized by the ‘Hourglass’ Women’s Group.
• Kraljevo, on December 8 in the city Cultural Center, organized by the local women’s group ‘Fenomena.’
• Tutin, on December 9 in the city Cultural Center, organized by the local nongovernmental organization ‘Impuls.’ In addition to the discussion, a concert by the antiwar punk group Hoću-Neću (from Kraljevo) was organized.
Approximately 300 people participated in these activities. Local media, especially electronic media, covered these events.
Transitional Justice from a Feminist Standpoint: In this reporting period, we held the following panel discussions, lectures, and workshops:
Vlasotince: on September 14 in the City Museum, there was a panel discussion entitled ‘Civil Society and Responsibility: Why is it Necessary for Us to Confront the Past?’ The speakers were Nenad Dimitrijević, a professor of political science at the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest and Lino Veljak, a professor of philosophy at the University of Zagreb. The discussion was organized by the SOS Telephone for Women and Children Victims of Violence. Activists from The Women’s Center - Leskovac and Women in Black - Belgrade participated. There were approximately 25 people in attendance.
Vlasotince: On December 11, there was a day-long seminar during which Women in Black activists from Belgrade, Niš, and Vlasotince coordinated workshops on guilt and responsibility and on confronting the past from a gender standpoint. This seminar was organized by the SOS Telephone for Women and Children Victims of Violence. Twenty-three women from Vlasotince attended the seminar.
Punishing Crime - The Path to a Just Peace: following trials in The Special Court, The Court for War Crimes in Belgrade. From its beginning in December 2005, Women in Black activists from all parts of Serbia, have followed the trial of members of the ‘Scorpions’ Serb paramilitary unit accused of the murder of civilian Bosniaks in July 1995 as part of the genocide in Srebrenica. In this period, the following court sessions occurred:
• September 5: six activists from Belgrade and Zaječar attended.
• September 25-26: six activists from Belgrade and Zaječar attended.
• November 1: five activists from Belgrade attended.
• December 5: eight activists from Kruševac, Belgrade, Vlasotince, and Dimitrovgrad attended.
The trial for the crimes in Suva Reka: on March 26, 1999, members of the Serbian Interior Ministry killed 46 ethnic Albanian civilians in Suva Reka, Kosovo. This trial began on October 2, 2006 and Women in Black activists have attended all session of the court thus far:
• October 2-6: five activists from Belgrade attended.
• November 7-9: eight activists from Belgrade, Leskovac and Vlasotince attended.
• December 4-8: nine activists from Belgrade, Vlasotince, Kruševac, Dimitrovgrad and Niš attended.
While following the trials, Women in Black activists meet with the families of the victims and offered support. Every day during the trial, they wrote reports about what has occurred in the court that day and distributed them through the Women in Black Network.
To See, To Know, To Change: video screenings of documentary material about war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia. After the screenings, organized discussions about confronting the past and transitional justice from a feminist standpoint are held. In this period, this activity was held in Kruševac on September 20 and October 4. The films presented were ‘Lora’ and ‘Curls of Smoke,’ whose creators are from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Networks, Coalitions, and Campaigns in Serbia: activities which Women in Black carried out in this period alone or with like-minded organizations.
Discussion on Kosovo: The G8 Group of nongovernmental organizations in Belgrade (Belgrade Circle, The Center for Cultural Decontamination, Civic Initiatives, The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, The Youth Initiative for Human Rights, The Fund for Humanitarian Law, The Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights [YUCOM] and Women in Black) organized a public dialog on the future of Kosovo and Serbia on September 27 in The Media Center. Ten activists from Belgrade, Novi Sad, Leskovac and Vrbas were panelists. Approximately 30 people attended the event.
The Women in Black Network - Serbia: on October 8, there was a day-long meeting in Belgrade in the meeting space of Women in Black. Forty-two activists from 16 cities in Serbia attended this meeting. In this network meeting, joint activities for the next quarter were discussed.
Women Ask: the women’s peace initiative and campaign that was described previously. Leaflets have been distributed in 15 cities in Serbia by members of the Women in Black Network. This activity was covered by the local media.
An Appeal to Citizens: In October, the Coalition for a Secular State (The Belgrade Center for Human Rights, The Center for Peace and the Development of Democracy, The Center for the Advancement of Legal Studies, Voice of Difference, and Women in Black) and The Women in Black Network—Serbia started an initiative against the undemocratic and discriminatory proposed Serbian Constitution. The action encouraged a boycott of the constitutional referendum held on October 27 and 28. This action was organized in nearly 40 cities, mainly through the distribution of leaflets.
‘Women, Peace and Security’ Resolution: on the sixth anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (‘Women, Peace and Security,’ passed on October 31, 2001), Women in Black again demanded that the Serbian Parliament implement the Resolution, and adopt the resolution ‘Women, Peace and Security’ proposed by Women in Black and supported by other groups. On November 9, 2005, this proposed resolution entered into parliamentary procedure. The Serbian Parliament has not offered any response to our repeated demands.
The Feminist Coalition: this group, which is comprised of autonomous women’s groups in Belgrade (The Autonomous Women’s Center, Voice of Difference, The Incest Trauma Center, The Reconstruction Women’s Fund, Women’s Studies, and Women in Black), held three working meetings in this period with the aim of improving cooperation and fostering mutual support.
Mutual Support - Women’s Solidarity at Work: this includes various activities, primarily education activities which Women in Black organized with like-minded organizations with the goal of strengthening civil society, widening the space for women’s autonomy, and helping autonomous women’s groups to begin and grow.
We mention only some of these here activities:
• Militarism and its Alternatives: a day-long seminar held in Leskovac on October 28, organized by The Women’s Center - Leskovac. Twenty-two women from Leskovac and Vlasotince participated in workshops on the militarization of everyday life and feminist-antimilitarist responses. The seminar was coordinated by Women in Black activists from Belgrade and activists from Leskovac.
• Backstage: in Kikinda on November 24, there was a workshop on the invisibility of women’s peace work coordinated by three Women in Black activists from Belgrade. The workshop was organized by ŽAR and 12 activists attended.
• Conservative Tendencies and Violence against Women – Feminist Responses: a panel discussion was held in Kikinda on December 1 to mark The 16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women. In this discussion organized by ŽAR, two Women in Black activists from Belgrade spoke.
• We Change Ourselves so We can Change the World: screenings of feminist films in Tutin in October, November, and December. The program was designed in the form of a thematic cycle of film together with Women in Black - Belgrade and the screenings were organized by ‘Impuls.’ Thus far, the films presented have been from the cycle entitled ‘the misuse of customs, traditions and beliefs…the responses of women.’ After every film screening, there is an organized discussion.
International Politics
Our international work includes participation in international conferences (official and alternative), contacts with international institutions and activist visits and exchanges.
Participation in international and alternative conferences – we note those in which we gave presentations or lectures, or participated in coordinating:
August 31-September 3, in Struga, Macedonia: ‘Women, Peace and Security – Resolution 1325,’ a conference organized by the Women’s Peace Coalition (The Kosova Women’s Network and the Women in Black Network - Serbia). Fifty-seven women activists from 12 cities in Serbia and an equal number of women from Kosovo participated. The topics included the history of relations between Kosovar women and Women in Black (a PowerPoint presentation in Albanian and Serbian prepared by Women in Black); confronting the past – women’s approach (a panel discussion); ‘Not in Our Name’ – feminist ethics and confronting the past; personal testimony about confronting the past; the development of the women's movement; regional connections; UN Security Council Resolution 1325 – women building peace; What does security mean to me?; Women in Black's activities related to security; political status and security; reproductive rights and security and the political status of Kosovo. Documentary films about Resolution 1325 by RTV21 and 'Always Disobedient,' were presented. At the conference, the Women's Peace Coalition adopted a joint declaration.
Other activities were carried out in the framework of the Women's Peace Coalition. At a conference in Vienna on September 9, the activities of the Struga conference were presented. On October 24, there was a joint appearance in an international conference in San Sebastian, Spain as well as an audience before the Basque Parliament on the following day.
• September 1, Brussels: Women in Black was nominated for The Saharov Prize for Human Rights which is awarded by the European Parliament.
• August 18-19, Brussels: The European Feminist Initiative for Another Europe, IFE-EFI. In the European Parliament in Brussels, 60 feminist activists from the Balkans and other European regions and other members of the peace movement attended the conference ‘Security in Europe – for whom?’ One Women in Black activist from Belgrade participated in this conference.
• September 9-10, Vienna: A women’s summit on sustaining peace in Southeastern Europe in which members of the Women’s Regional Lobby for Peace and Justice participated. The summit was organized by Unifem. Fifteen members of the lobby participated in the conference. The lobby was founded in July 2006 by women activists from nongovernmental organizations (Women in Black among them) and civic-oriented political parties from Albania and the former Yugoslavia.
• September 14-17, Sarajevo: The conference ‘’78 Revisited – Pitchwise’ on the women’s movement in the former Yugoslavia organized by the Cure Foundation. Four Women in Black activists from Belgrade, Velika Plana and Zaječar participated in the conference.
• September 21, Belgrade: a working meeting in the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the contribution of civil society in connection to the future status of Kosovo. Representatives of nine Serbian nongovernmental organizations participated in the meeting. On October 1, Women in Black sent a document to the OHCHR with recommendations for the future status of Kosovo.
• September 20-21, Sarajevo: ‘Women, Peace and Security’ seminar organized by the Agency for Gender Equality of Bosnia-Herzegovina in cooperation with the OSCE Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
• October 23-24, San Sebastian, Spain: ‘Women Creating Peace,’ an international conference organized by The Basque Government Institute for Women (Emakunde-Instituto vasco de la Mujer).
• October 25-30, Georgia and Azerbaijan: a series of lectures and workshops on the peace activism of Women in Black presented by two Women in Black activists from Belgrade in many cities in these countries. It was organized by the Heinreich Beoll Stiftung foundation and local women’s groups. In both countries, public screenings of the film ‘Always Disobedient’ were held. The themes of the workshops were ‘From the Role of a Victim to the Role of a Responsible Citizen’ and ‘The Role of Women’s Initiatives in Building Civil Society, Peace, and Democracy.’
• October 25, Vitoria, Spain: an audience in the Basque Parliament for activists of the Women’s Peace Coalition (The Kosova Women’s Network and the Women in Black Network - Serbia).
• November 17-19, Valencia, Spain: a working meeting of The Women in Black Network - Spain and activists from the Women in Black national networks in Serbia and Italy on preparations for the upcoming meeting of the International Network of Women in Black in August 2007 in Valencia.
• November 20, Barcelona: a lecture on peace politics and ethical principles by a Women in Black activist in the University of Barcelona to The Investigative Group for Peace.
• November 21, Barcelona: a lecture in the same university for students and instructors. ‘Always Disobedient’ was also presented.
• November 22: Santa Maria de Palutordera (near Barcelona), Spain: a lecture on the war in the former Yugoslavia and the post-conflict situation. In addition to a Women in Black activist and an activist from the Fund for Humanitarian Law from Belgrade, a representative of the Women of Srebrenica civic association from Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina also participated.
• November 23-25, Barcelona: An international conference on peace activism in crisis regions and transitional justice organized by the 'Pau e solidaritat (Peace and Solidarity) Foundation and the University of Barcelona.
• November 24-25, Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina: an international round table discussion on finding the truth was organized by the Tuzla Citizens’ Forum.
• December 12-13, Belgrade: a working meeting of the network of organizations supported by the Swedish foundation Kvinna till Kvinna.
Activist visits and exchanges: These were primarily visits, exchanges, and discussions about collaboration with activists of the International Women in Black Network, but also other networks, foundations and organizations:
October 17-21: Women in Black was visited by two activist from Women in Black - Italy as well as eight activists from Women in Black - Denmark. For these visits, the following activities were organized in Belgrade:
• October 18: in the Women in Black office, there was a discussion of the situation in Serbia and the problems and experiences of women peace activists. Women of the Women in Black Network from Leskovac, Tutin, Kruševac, Vrbas, Zaječar, and Belgrade participated in this discussion. Representatives of two international women’s funds, Hearts and Hands and The Global Fund for Women, attended this discussion. Earlier in the day, all participants took part in the peaceful street action marking the fifteenth anniversary of Women in Black.
• October 20: in the Women in Black office, activists from Belgrade and two Women in Black activists from Turin discussed women’s peace diplomacy, the politics of global solidarity, and other topics.
In this reporting period, we were visited by activists and researchers from Sweden, Austria, Georgia, Spain, Germany and other countries.
Publishing Activities
In this period, we carried out the following publishing activities with the aim of promoting the actions and ideas of Women in Black:
• ‘Always Disobedient,’ a documentary film about Women in Black that is 35 minutes long.
• An audio-visual work by the Skart group about the principles of Women in Black’s women’s peace politics that is 20 minutes long.
• The Women’s Peace Agenda for 2007, which is 176 pages long. This year’s agenda celebrates the fifteenth anniversary of Women in Black and 15 years of antiwar resistance in Serbia.
• The Women’s Peace Calendar for 2007, which contains Women in Black’s principles of women’s peace politics.
• Leaflets: Women Ask (a women’s peace initiative), an appeal on the Serbian constitutional referendum, as well as leaflets in Serbian and English that are a short description of our 15 years of activities.
• ‘Always Disobedient,’ a brochure about the 15 years of Women in Black activities, 80 pages, in Serbian.
Additionally, we held regular meetings and internal workshops as well as many other activities.
This report was prepared by Milos, Ljilja and Stasa.
Belgrade, January 10, 2007
