Global Issues

Bosnia and Herzogovina

• Estimated 20,000 to 50,000 women raped during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• Sexual and domestic violence against women widespread and underreported.

• According to NGO estimates, one-third of the women in the country were victims of domestic violence.

• Source, destination and transit country for men, women and children who are subjected to sex trafficking.

• Bosnian victims are subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor in Azerbaijan, Slovenia, Croatia, Alabania, Serbia, Kosovo and other countries in Europe.

• Bosnian women and young girls were subjected to sex trafficking within the country. Local girls, particularly Roma, were trafficked, using forced marriage, for the purpose of domestic servitude.

•  NGO reported children as young as 12 years old are subjected to sex trafficking by traffickers who use blackmail, gang rape, and drugs as tools of coercion and control.

 

Advocacy:

Amela Efendic has been a tireless and compassionate caregiver for trafficking victims and an advocate for victim-protection issues for more than 10 years. As head of office for the International Forum of Solidarity-Emmaus. Efendic manages one of Bosnia’s largest and most active shelters for trafficking victims

 

Source: United Nations Development Fund for Women; U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011; U.S. Department of State 2010 Human Rights Report