Bakira Hasečić

Who is Bakira Hasečić?

Bakira Hasečić is a Bosniak woman from Višegrad, a town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1992 during the ethnic cleansing of Višegrad that took place in the early days of the Bosnian war she was raped in the Višegrad police station by Bosnian Serb soldiers, members of the Army of Republika Srpska, and then taken elsewhere where she was raped by a soldier from Serbia. Her sister died in a Serb rape camp. Her experiences led to her becoming one of the most prominent human rights activists in Bosnia, working with organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. She campaigns to secure justice for the women victims of the Bosnian war in national and international courts, in particular the victims of rape and sexual abuse.

Today she is President of the Association of Women Victims of War, based in Sarajevo. Her organisation campaigns for the rights of women who were the victims of rape and similar crimes during the war, gathering evidence and information about war criminals and rapists hiding in the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia with a view to securing their prosecution. The Association has provided key testimony in rape and sexual abuse trials linked to the conflict and has helped obtain justice and financial and psychological aid for many of its thousand-plus members.