EUROPE

A Tribute to the Service and Work of Jadranka Cigelj on behalf of The International Society for Human Rights

Prepared by the ISHR Secretariat

The International Society for Human Rights would like to issue a special tribute in honor of the great work of Jadranka Cigelj. She served as the head of the ISHR-Croatia section for just under three decades, although her story and the significance of her life work stretches further back.

Born in 1948 in Zagreb, at seven years old Jadranka Cigelj and her parents moved to the town of Prijedor in Bosnia. She went on to study law and finished her degree in Sarajevo, eventually becoming a practicing lawyer in Prijedor. However, with the outbreak of the war in the former Yugoslavia, her entire life, and that of her family, neighbors, and friends was to change drastically.

Photo credits: direktno.hr

In June of 1992, she was taken by armed officers to the infamous Omarska Concentration Camp, known as the site of some of the most horrific atrocities of the war: a key component to the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Serbs in Bosnia. Cigelj was one of 37 women held in the camp, where she survived 57 days of torture, starvation, psychological, mental, and physical abuse. Notably, she suffered as a victim of repeated and multiple rape, a part of the systemic attempt to destroy the spirits and will of the women held there. Worse, she herself often even knew the soldiers and perpetrators of such actions against her and the others: some were former neighbors or acquaintances in school or the wider Prijedor community before the war. Despite this, they refused to ever acknowledge any recognition of her or other prisoners. Cigelj points out in a 1999 BBC interview that in the even in the Auschwitz concentration camp, prisoners were given numbers to identify them – Omarska inmates had no numbers, no names, nor any other form of recognition of their identity – within the borders of the camp, they were not even human.

When Cigelj and a few others were released as part of an effort by the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic to sanitize the image of the camps to foreign media, they faced a difficult re-entry into normal life. Rape victims rarely, if ever, spoke publicly about what they had endured, due to stigma and shame which kept their stories out of the public light and discourse. This most often had the chilling effect of precluding prosecution for the abuse experienced in camps like Omarska.

Initially, even Cigelj’s own mother disapproved of her daughter’s desire to speak out about what had happened in Omarska, worried for her safety if she did so. But for Cigelj, speaking out about the abuse and crimes she experienced in the camps had to be done, and with her background in law she understood the importance of elevating their stories into the legal sphere and the possibilities it brought for justice.

Because of her intention to speak out and the threats made to her life as a result, among other factors which had landed her in the camp in the first place, she was forced to flee to Croatia soon after escaping Omarska. Once in Zagreb, she devoted herself to the work of raising the voices of women who suffered from sexual abuse and rape as an instrument of war. She set up a human rights office, affiliated with the German-based International Society of Human Rights (ISHR), where she led the project “Voice of the Victim – Voice for the Victim”. The project collected over 15,000 statements by women who were victims of rape during the war. She also featured in the film “Calling the Ghosts” which shared the story of her and fellow inmate Nusreta Sivac in concentration camps during the war in the Bosnia. The film received positive critical acclaim and reached wide audiences around the world, including former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan who received her not long after the film’s release.

At the international level, Cigelj sought the formation of an International Tribunal on War Crimes in Yugoslavia. This goal was achieved on May 25th, 1993, with UNSC Resolution 827, establishing such a Tribunal, and most importantly, establishing rape as a prosecutable and punishable war crime on which the Tribunal would adjudicate. She herself was instrumental in the work of the Tribunal, providing evidence and testimony, encouraging other victims to come forward as witnesses, and even faced Slobodan Milosevic himself in the Hague – a testament to the power of her determination and strength, that her work would help bring a man as powerful as him to some measure of justice before her very eyes.

In addition to this work, Cigelj published an autobiography, Room 102 (named after the room she was kept in in Omarska), has participated in hundreds of foreign television and radio shows, held lectures before American and European lawmakers, traveled the world sharing her experiences and continued for many years holding open and public events back home despite the dangers presented by the many who oppose and feel threatened by her work. She has been recognized on numerous occasions globally. She received the “Ludovic Trarieux” award by the French Bar Association from Bordeaux in 1995, was named the person of the year by the Austrian “Der Standard” and was included among the seven women of the century by the American’s Women Magazine in 1998.

Today, Cigelj is suffering from severe illness, is a pensioner living off generous financial support, and the Croatian section she once led with bravery and determination is no more. However, her legacy and the fruit of her work lives on. International perception of rape and war has undergone dramatic change, for which she deserves significant credit. She empowered thousands of women to speak out about the abuses they suffered during the war, find the strength to seek justice, and remind them of their dignity and strength as not only survivors, but human beings.

The ISHR Secretariat wishes Ms. Cigelj a speedy recovery from her illness and is deeply grateful for her contributions to the fight for human rights, justice, and peace, as well as her work empowering the voiceless and victims of violence and the horrors of war. Jadranka Cigelj embodies the greatest and most admirable values of society, and we are sorry that in so many words we cannot come close to the level of appreciation and recognition which she deserves for her work and service. Hvala Jadranka Cigelj za sve što si učinila za nas, ali i za cijeli svijet.

Facts, figures, and dates sourced from the following: