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10 May 2016
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Speakers: Dr Olivera Simić, Dr Marsha Henry
The condemnation of wartime sexual violence as a gross violation of human rights has been widespread but, Dr Olivera Simić argues, is predicated on an ‘ideal’ victim subject. In this event, part of the Women, Peace and Security Conversations series, Dr Simić will discuss the excluded or silenced narratives of wartime sexual violence among women belonging to so-called ‘perpetrator’ war-torn nations. The conversation will explore the silence surrounding Bosnian Serb women’s experiences of wartime sexual violence and Dr Simić’s view that the current discourse results in a problematic victim hierarchy that excludes experiences of rape survived by wives, daughters, mothers and sisters of ‘perpetrators’.
Olivera Simić is a Senior Lecturer with the Griffith Law School, Griffith University, Australia and a Visiting Professor with UN University for Peace, Costa Rica. Her research engages with transitional justice, international law, gender and crime from an interdisciplinary perspective. Olivera’s latest edited collection, Transitional Justice and Reconciliation: Lessons from the Balkans (with Martina Fischer)has been published byRoutledge in 2015. Her latest monograph Surviving Peace: A Political Memoir has been published by Spinifex in 2014. Olivera is currently working on her monograph Silenced Victims of Wartime Sexual Violence (Routledge, 2017) and the first textbook in transitional justice with a group of experts from around the world (Routledge, 2017).
Marsha Henry (chair) is Deputy Director of the Centre for Women, Peace and Security.
Conversations series
This event is part of the Women, Peace and Security Conversations series. Recordings of past events are available to download: