Bridging the Gap between Law and Reality: The Endurance of Oppressive Cultural Norms and the Silencing of Survivors of Domestic Violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bridging the Gap between Law and Reality: The Endurance of Oppressive Cultural Norms and the Silencing of Survivors of Domestic Violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary/Abstract: This paper will argue that in spite of a vast array of legal commitments to targeting domestic violence, dating from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1993 to its ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence in 2013, domestic violence remains a corrosive and largely hidden element of Bosnian and Herzegovinian society. These explicit commitments to reducing instances of domestic violence and improving support mechanisms for survivors have unfortunately failed to translate into meaningful results and measurable progress. This can be illustrated by an analysis of continuing deficiencies in financial support for women’s shelters and a surprising lack of research and data collection which would allow for a better understanding, and evaluation of the reality of domestic violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This bleak assessment of the large gap that exists between legal commitments and reality is cause for reflection on the inadequacies of viewing legal reform and commitments as the primary vector for social change. Instead, it will be argued that although legal commitments are necessary to sustainably transform the reality of domestic violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it will equally be necessary to accompany legal measures with public sensitisation, awareness raising and a strong challenge to ongoing oppressive cultural and gender norms that cause and sustain high rates of domestic violence. Ultimately, this paper will argue that in light of the law’s failure to take exclusive responsibility for changing attitudes, domestic violence can only be effectively targeted through combining a genuine follow through on legal commitments with public awareness campaigns to challenge long standing assumptions in Bosnia and Herzegovina that domestic violence is a private issue best contained within the home and has no place in the public sphere.

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