A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Igo Rogova - Protecting Women's Rights

Igo Rogova, Executive Director of the women's group Motrat Qiriazi, was in tears. During the war she had faced down Serbian paramilitary. Now, a year into the peace she was up against the United Nations. 

Center of attention: Igo Rogova

Late in July 2000, women in Kosovo decided to organize a march to honor the victims and survivors (mostly women) of the massacre at Srebrenica during the war in Bosnia. It was a gresture of solidarity.

In the time-honored fashion, they wanted to march down the main street with photos of their loved ones. Although they had been granted a security permit by the police, the Office of Gender Affairs in UNMIK-supposedly the mouthpiece for women in Kosovo-did not sanction the march and attempted to stop it.

The women of Kosovo responded as only they knew how. They linked arms and stopped traffic, until the UN police agreed to clear the street and allow the march. But the incident left a sour taste on both sides. To Igo, UNMIK had shown itself once again to be condescending, patronizing, and unhelpful. 

Inside the conference, there were further demonstrations of the gulf between the United Nations and women of Kosovo. The Kosova Women's Union, which organized the meeting, decided not to admit more than two representatives from international organizations at any one time. The message was clear: this is our show, not yours.

This was merely the latest in a series of skirmishes between the United Nations and women's movement in Kosovo in the months that followed the arrival of UNMIK. In one sense they started on the wrong foot and never recovered. In another, it was quite deliberate, particularly on the part of Igo Rogova. Unlike Halit Ferizi and Guri Shkodra, who chose conciliation and cooperation, Igo chose confrontation. She was more than happy to mix it with the international agencies-to complain when they slipped up, and to demand more.

She was most outspoken in denouncing the Kosovo Women's Initiative-the $10 million fund for women administered by UNHCR. When the OSCE tried to impose coordination on women, it was Igo who led the revolt and initiated a separate meeting for women. She was the one who complained that Bernard Kouchner, the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General in Kosovo, was treating Kosovar women "like Barbie dolls."

Igo's most recent campaign occurred over gender mainstreaming. Everyone agreed that women should be represented in UNMIK and also in the transitional administration. Twenty transitional departments (or ministries) have been established, with 40 "co-heads." Seven co-heads are women, and they include Vjosa Dobruna, one of the founders of the prestigious Center for the Protection of Women and Children.

The United Nations also established a special office on gender affairs to advise Kouchner and coordinate gender issues among the rambling mission. U.N. working groups have been drafting new laws on violence against women and trafficking-both issues dear to the women's movement.

UNMIK received little credit from Igo. One reason was that Kouchner reportedly favored creating a department for women. Igo and others felt that this would marginalize women's issues and put them under the control of the political parties. 

But the deeper disagreement concerned the role of women in the rebuilding of Kosovo. The real challenge to Igo was not about mainstreaming gender in UNMIK-important though that was. The real task was to build reconstruction around women and work in partnership with the women's movement. This movement had plenty of experience, as she herself had demonstrated during the parallel society and in war.

The intensity of Igo's style left some U.N. officials hurt and angry-feeling that nothing they did seemed to make a difference. But others understood what was at stake and put up with the rebuffs. As director of the controversial Kosovo Women's Initiative, Maureen McBrien was repeatedly targeted by Igo. Still, Maureen liked and admired Igo greatly. She realized that Kosovo would need some of Igo's steel once the United Nations had departed.

For all her inconsistency, Igo is hard not to like. Behind the smoker's cough lies a sunny, optimistic personality-a trait that she shares with other successful advocates. She is also constructive. She protested angrily when international NGOs muscled into the sensitive town of Mitrovica and established no fewer than three women's centers, competing directly with Motrat Qiriazi's center. She was ignored. Still, she asked her director in Mitrovica to coordinate between the four centers and see how they could work together.

Her own great skill-and passion-is networking. Once the women of Kosovo had decided to boycott OSCE coordination meetings, Igo made sure that they turned to building the women's movement, instead of trashing the United Nations. They formed a forum that now meets monthly and includes over 30 different organizations. Each one brings 10 D-marks to the meeting. When the kitty reaches 1,000 DM it is given to a deserving group. 

When we last met with her, Igo told us of the partnership between an Albanian women's group and a dynamic Serb woman who was caring for Serb refugees in Kosovo. They were put in touch with each other by international agencies. As the relationship grew, it allowed the Albanian women to see Serbs as victims as well as rapists and turned out to be an important step on the road to reconciliation.

This side to Igo the fighter is deeply attractive. It remains hidden from many U.N. officials. But if they could only get over the personal hurt they might understand that Igo is using the United Nations as a foil to strengthen the women's movement. 

Bernard Kouchner treats us
like Barbie Dolls!

It seems to be working. Women are emerging as the strongest and most confident sector of civil society in Kosovo.

*Update

Capacity Building for Roma Women

Igo Rogova held two days of training for fifteen women from Kosovo's Ashkali, Roma and Egyptian communities in Prishtina, between December 21 and 22, 2000. Igo asked the Advocacy Project to publicise the results of the training, which she described as a great success.

The 2-day meeting helped to break the ice between the women (some of whom had known and disliked each other). They decided that illiteracy among women is one of their most pressing problems, and should be the focus of joint proposals to donors. The group agreed to set up a network and celebrate International Roma day (April 8, 2001) in the Kosovo town of Prizren.

For more information on this and other capacity-building programs for women in Kosovo, contact Igo at motratqiriazi@ipko.org