Gender and Transitional Justice: Recognition and Reparations of Wartime Sexual Violence in Kosovo

Gender-sensitive transitional justice has yet to address gender-blind spots that challenge survivors of gender-based harms in seeking justice. Against this backdrop, this article provides a critical view of the processes, measures, and instruments of transitional justice applied in post-war Kosovo to address wartime sexual violence. The article discusses the instruments of transitional justice, structured as long retributive and restorative mechanisms, namely criminal justice, reparations, and memorialization, and analyzes how transitional justice infrastructure evolved on the ground regarding recognition and reparations of wartime sexual violence. It further discusses the silence surrounding and recognition of wartime sexual violence as a gender-specific crime and how it has translated into law and sits within the collective memory. In doing so, the article accounts for gender norms, national ideologies, and actors, and how they have all shaped discourses and policy on recognition of wartime sexual violence and redistribution of rights-namely reparations-after an extended period of silence. It argues for the centrality of gender-sensitive and survivor-centered approaches in transitional justice mechanisms to ensure redress, reparations, and transformative politics for empowerment of all those who suffered gender-based harms during the war.