Memorial Day for Survivors of Sexual Violence during the Kosovo War

After four years of advocacy work by the Kosova Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims (KRCT) and other stakeholders, the Kosovar government decided to mark the 14th April as a Memorial Day for the Survivors of Sexual Violence during the Kosovo war of 1998-1999.

This Memorial Day recognises the pain and suffering of women and girls, but also of men and boys who survived sexual violence during that war.

The 14th of April was chosen because it was on that day, in 1999, that the first Kosovar survivor and SEMA member – Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman – who spoke publicly about her own experience having suffered from CRSV, was assaulted.