The Struggle for Redress

This book explores pathways to redress for main groups of victims/survivors of the 1992-5 Bosnian war families of missing persons, victims of torture, survivors of sexual violence, and victims suffering physical disabilities and harm. The author traces the history of redress-making for each of these groups and shows how differently they have been treated by Bosnian authorities at the state and subnational level. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, thousands of war victims have had to suffer re-traumatising ordeals in order to secure partial redress for their suffering during 19921995 and after. While some, such as victims of sexual violence, have been legally recognised and offered financial and service-based compensation, others, such as victims of torture, have been recognized only recently with a clear geographical limitation. The main aim of the book is to explore the politics behind recognizing victimhood and awarding redress in a country that has been divided by instrumentalized identity cleavages, widespread patronage and debilitating war legacies. It shows how war victims/survivors navigate such fragmented and challenging public landscape in order to secure their rights.

Provides an analysis of the dynamics between official domestic and international authorities, as well as activists and a new war-created population seeking compensation Synthesizes various bodies of literature not only on transitional justice but also on social movements and anthropological approaches to victimhood Explores the political exploitation of the various frames of victimhood and the strategies used by victims

Autorentext

Jessie Barton-Hroneová is an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department for International Development, University of Oxford, UK.

Inhalt
Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Victim Capital for Recognition and Redress.- Chapter 3. The Bosnian Conflict, its Aftermath and Victims' Demands.- Chapter 4. 'Why is my leg worth less?' Disability and the Loss of Life of Military and Civilian War Victims.- Chapter 5. Graves and Redress: Families of the Missing Persons and the 'Srebrenica Effect'.- Chapter 6. Between Recognition and Oblivion: Victims of Sexual Violence and Torture.- Chapter 7. Victimhood, Recognition and Redress from a Comparative Perspective.