Genocide and the Bosnian war through a gender lens

This article uses examples from the 1992–1995 Bosnian war and its aftermath to illustrate how a gender lens helps to understand the category of genocide, both in legal and in popular terms. The one event in the Bosnian war that was ruled to be genocide was the sex-selective killings of over 8000 Bosnian Muslim men during the Bosnian Serb Army’s takeover of the Srebrenica “Safe Area” from July 11, 1995. Assumptions about gender and culture—that this population was a traditional patriarchal society—formed the basis for the judgment that the Bosnian Serbs had acted with the intent to “destroy in whole or in part” the Bosnian Muslims of the enclave. Sexual violence against both men and women has also figured in war crimes trials for Bosnia, prosecuted as crimes against humanity but not directly as genocide. This connection has also stirred activist and academic debate, owing to the contradictions that arise between the pursuit of justice on behalf of ethno-national groups and justice that counteracts gender-based violence and gender inequalities. Through the Srebrenica judgment and debates over wartime rape, this article examines the gendered logics of the Bosnian war and how the label of genocide or that of “lesser” crimes affects survivors and members of victim and perpetrator groups. It shows how postwar initiatives for gender justice in Bosnia, especially those for war violence survivors, have not significantly challenged the fundamental gender logics of national victim narratives which continue to dominate much of public discourse and politics. As in other contexts, the goal of preventing and condemning mass atrocities, whether ruled genocide or not—to ensure “Never Again”—does little to advocate for comprehensive justice without also challenging the gendered logic that has historically upheld them.