Sonja Biserko
Encyclopedia
Sonja Biserko is a Serbian compaigner for human rights
. She is the founder and president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
.
Sonja Biserko holds a degree from the University of Belgrade
Faculty of Economics
. She served as a diplomat for the former Yugoslavia
in London and at the United Nations
in Geneva for over 20 years until 1991 when she resigned her diplomatic position in protest over the policies of Slobodan Milosevic
and his nationalist agenda of an “ethnically purified” Greater Serbia
. In Geneva in 1991 she organised one of the first meetings of the Yugoslav opposition to Milosevic. In 1994 she founded the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia (HCHRS) and she is the organisation's current President. HCHRS, a member of the European network of Helsinki Committees for Human Rights and formerly part of the dissolved International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
, is a professional organisation working to promote the rule of law and protection of human rights in Serbia, challenging nationalist dogma, documenting war crimes and acting as advocate for the victimised and disenfranchised.
Sonja Biserko's ongoing work for human rights has included documenting the resurgence of Serbian nationalism that followed the war in Kosovo
, the continuing threats to minorities, nationalist attempts to falsify or deny the historical record and efforts to undermine multi-ethnic society in the former Yugoslavia. Through active support for minority and refugee communities within Serbia and Kosovo she has sought in particular to promote dialogue between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo.
As a dissident voice of conscience criticising the nationalist agenda, she has been a controversial figure. In April 1997 she addressed the Conference on Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, and War sponsored by the University of California at Berkeley Human Rights Center on the role of the Serb media in preparing the way for genocide in former Yugoslavia, in a speech "Reporting from the Killing Fields". In a debate at the European Parliament on inter-cultural and regional dialogue in the western Balkans she stated that the Serbian political elite remained "a prisoner to Great Serb ethnocentric myths, and to the theory that Serbia is the victim of an international conspiracy" and argued that the halting progress of Serbia's integration with Europe was due to the elite's continuing commitment to an eventual annexation of Republika Srpska
.
In her 2009 speech accepting the City of Weimar
's Human Rights Prize, she affirmed her belief that Serbia's recent past and the traumas associated with it can only be transcended by knowing and understanding that past. HCHRS's work sought to cast light on the suppression or falsification of the past. Orchestrated amnesia and reinterpretation of both the historical and recent past had resulted in failure to confront the truth and abandon the legacy of expansionist nationalist aspirations. Change could only be achieved in Serbia and the region as a whole if the truth was told.
She argued that the persistence of nationalist aspirations had fostered a climate hostile to all non-nationalistic values, including human rights, and pointed to the need for strategic change, calling for the establishment of a ‘moral minimum’ in society and in politics as the basis of Serbian statehood, opening the way for the consolidation of democracy and regional co-operation. This ‘moral minimum’ would involve sincere co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
in The Hague and recognition of the work of the Tribunal as a moral reference point.
Sonja Biserko and the staff of HCHRS have experienced threats and intimidation. Physical assaults on Biserko and break-ins at her home in 2005 and 2006 were reportedly linked to government officials who had launched a campaign of harassment and intimidation directed against the women directors of a number of Serbian human rights NGOs. In 2008 a large group of members of ultra right-wing organisations, including Movement 1389 and Protest, gathered in front of HCHRS's office shouting abusive threats, many aimed specifically at Sonja Biserko, leaving a large cardboard swastika outside the building. HCHRS received many threatening letters, some containing explicit death threats against Sonja Biserko, who was given no police protection. A newspaper article called her a “traitor to homogeneous Serbianhood”, disclosing her home address and information about her family. Personal information about her was also published on the newspaper's website.
These media attacks and acts of aggressive intimidation were believed to be linked to the publication of the HCHRS's Annual Report for 2007, which addressed crimes against humanity of the Serbian administration in the Balkan region during the 1990s.
Sonja Biserko is the author of Srbija na Orijentu [Serbia in the East], published by HCHRS, Belgrade 2004
. Among some 140 other publications she has written about the Srebrenica genocide, the fall of Vukovar
, the wars in the former Yugoslavia and war crimes and accounts of the trials of Slobodan Milosevic and Vojislav Seselj
. Her works have documented the role of Serb institutions including the Serbian Orthodox Church
and the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
in encouraging Serbian extremism and have contributed to the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
.
Sonja Biserko was a founding member of a European movement in Yugoslavia, the Center for Anti-War Action in the Belgrade Forum for International Relations. She is senior fellow in the United States Institute of Peace.
In 1994 she received the Human Rights Award of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in New York. In 2005 she was one of 1000 women in the group 1000 Women for Peace nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2009 she was awarded the 2009 Human Rights Prize of the City of Weimar (Germany) jointly with Jestina Mukoko
.
In 2010 she was awarded the Human Rights Award of the University of Oslo.
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
. She is the founder and president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia is a volunteer, non-profit organization concerned with human rights issues in Serbia. It was formed in September 1994 as one of many national Helsinki Committees for Human Rights formerly organized into the now-defunct International Helsinki...
.
Sonja Biserko holds a degree from the University of Belgrade
University of Belgrade
The University of Belgrade is the oldest and largest university of Serbia.Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-based departments into a single university...
Faculty of Economics
University of Belgrade Faculty of Economics
The University of Belgrade Faculty of Economics is one of the educational institutions of the University of Belgrade, Serbia. The building is located in the city center of Belgrade...
. She served as a diplomat for the former Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
in London and at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in Geneva for over 20 years until 1991 when she resigned her diplomatic position in protest over the policies of Slobodan Milosevic
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
and his nationalist agenda of an “ethnically purified” Greater Serbia
Greater Serbia
The term Greater Serbia or Great Serbia applies to the Serbian nationalist and irredentist ideology directed towards the creation of a Serbian land which would incorporate all regions of traditional significance to the Serbian nation...
. In Geneva in 1991 she organised one of the first meetings of the Yugoslav opposition to Milosevic. In 1994 she founded the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia (HCHRS) and she is the organisation's current President. HCHRS, a member of the European network of Helsinki Committees for Human Rights and formerly part of the dissolved International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights was a self-governing group of non-governmental, not-for-profit organizations that act to protect human rights throughout Europe, North America and Central Asia...
, is a professional organisation working to promote the rule of law and protection of human rights in Serbia, challenging nationalist dogma, documenting war crimes and acting as advocate for the victimised and disenfranchised.
Sonja Biserko's ongoing work for human rights has included documenting the resurgence of Serbian nationalism that followed the war in Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, the continuing threats to minorities, nationalist attempts to falsify or deny the historical record and efforts to undermine multi-ethnic society in the former Yugoslavia. Through active support for minority and refugee communities within Serbia and Kosovo she has sought in particular to promote dialogue between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo.
As a dissident voice of conscience criticising the nationalist agenda, she has been a controversial figure. In April 1997 she addressed the Conference on Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, and War sponsored by the University of California at Berkeley Human Rights Center on the role of the Serb media in preparing the way for genocide in former Yugoslavia, in a speech "Reporting from the Killing Fields". In a debate at the European Parliament on inter-cultural and regional dialogue in the western Balkans she stated that the Serbian political elite remained "a prisoner to Great Serb ethnocentric myths, and to the theory that Serbia is the victim of an international conspiracy" and argued that the halting progress of Serbia's integration with Europe was due to the elite's continuing commitment to an eventual annexation of Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
.
In her 2009 speech accepting the City of Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
's Human Rights Prize, she affirmed her belief that Serbia's recent past and the traumas associated with it can only be transcended by knowing and understanding that past. HCHRS's work sought to cast light on the suppression or falsification of the past. Orchestrated amnesia and reinterpretation of both the historical and recent past had resulted in failure to confront the truth and abandon the legacy of expansionist nationalist aspirations. Change could only be achieved in Serbia and the region as a whole if the truth was told.
She argued that the persistence of nationalist aspirations had fostered a climate hostile to all non-nationalistic values, including human rights, and pointed to the need for strategic change, calling for the establishment of a ‘moral minimum’ in society and in politics as the basis of Serbian statehood, opening the way for the consolidation of democracy and regional co-operation. This ‘moral minimum’ would involve sincere co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
in The Hague and recognition of the work of the Tribunal as a moral reference point.
Sonja Biserko and the staff of HCHRS have experienced threats and intimidation. Physical assaults on Biserko and break-ins at her home in 2005 and 2006 were reportedly linked to government officials who had launched a campaign of harassment and intimidation directed against the women directors of a number of Serbian human rights NGOs. In 2008 a large group of members of ultra right-wing organisations, including Movement 1389 and Protest, gathered in front of HCHRS's office shouting abusive threats, many aimed specifically at Sonja Biserko, leaving a large cardboard swastika outside the building. HCHRS received many threatening letters, some containing explicit death threats against Sonja Biserko, who was given no police protection. A newspaper article called her a “traitor to homogeneous Serbianhood”, disclosing her home address and information about her family. Personal information about her was also published on the newspaper's website.
These media attacks and acts of aggressive intimidation were believed to be linked to the publication of the HCHRS's Annual Report for 2007, which addressed crimes against humanity of the Serbian administration in the Balkan region during the 1990s.
Sonja Biserko is the author of Srbija na Orijentu [Serbia in the East], published by HCHRS, Belgrade 2004
. Among some 140 other publications she has written about the Srebrenica genocide, the fall of Vukovar
Vukovar
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...
, the wars in the former Yugoslavia and war crimes and accounts of the trials of Slobodan Milosevic and Vojislav Seselj
Vojislav Šešelj
Vojislav Šešelj, JD is a Serbian politician, writer and lawyer. He is the founder and president of the Serbian Radical Party and was vice-president of Serbia between 1998 and 2000...
. Her works have documented the role of Serb institutions including the Serbian Orthodox Church
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church is one of the autocephalous Orthodox Christian churches, ranking sixth in order of seniority after Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Russia...
and the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is the most prominent academic institution in Serbia today...
in encouraging Serbian extremism and have contributed to the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
.
Sonja Biserko was a founding member of a European movement in Yugoslavia, the Center for Anti-War Action in the Belgrade Forum for International Relations. She is senior fellow in the United States Institute of Peace.
In 1994 she received the Human Rights Award of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in New York. In 2005 she was one of 1000 women in the group 1000 Women for Peace nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2009 she was awarded the 2009 Human Rights Prize of the City of Weimar (Germany) jointly with Jestina Mukoko
Jestina Mukoko
Jestina Mukoko is a Zimbabwean human rights activist and the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project. She is a journalist by training and a former newsreader with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation....
.
In 2010 she was awarded the Human Rights Award of the University of Oslo.
External links
- Sonja Biserko interview to Bosnian InstituteBosnian InstituteThe Bosnian Institute is an organisation principally devoted to providing information on, and promoting the common good of, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It publishes a quarterly online magazine. It is directed by Quintin Hoare....
website