Diplomatic Decorum and the Unfulfilled Potential of Kosovo's Women

By Ruth del Pino Bleijerveld

This morning we woke up to the sound of a rooster’s crow in a hotel in Northern Mitrovica surrounded by lush forests and mountains. Before our stomachs had even had a chance to awaken, we were served generous bacon-filled omelettes by friendly Serb waiters. 

Perhaps the most impactful moment of the day was our meeting with UNMIK’s  Deputy Head of the Mitrovica Regional Office, the extremely careful and diplomatic American: Preston Petony. We sat in a blue conference room, with Petony at the head, the UNMIK letters behind him bright and bold, adding legitimacy to his every word. Our Peace Lab students sat around the table bristling with carefully-worded yet slightly accusatory questions about the UNMIK’s democratic legitimacy. To each difficult question, Petony leaned back on his chair, revealed a peevish smile, and an apprehensive ‘mmm’, while maintaining diplomatic decorum.

Throughout this trip, the theme of the democratic legitimacy of international organisations in Kosovo has been recurrent. The sentiment of some of the population, embodied in the political party Vetëvendosje’s policy, is that their presence is an impediment to the freedom and independence of the people, considering that they operate as a sovereign power that has the ability to overturn any legislation that the parliament passes.

Yet, much of the population is also in favour of the presence of such organisations. Through our visits to the UNDP, UNICEF, UNPF, and UNMIK, on Tuesday, we learned about the important work that they carry out. In particular, these institutions help to facilitate inter-faith dialogue and the promotion of women’s rights in Kosovo (the latter is the subject of my Peace Lab project). One of the women working for the UNFPA for example, told us about the work that she did to promote the protection of women’s rights in her community, by collaborating with the priests of the Serb Orthodox Church to shift society’s current paradigm on domestic violence. I was happy to hear that the rate of domestic abuse in Serbian communities in Northern Mitrovica had fallen after priests had held sermons on this topic, preaching against violence against women in the household.

Despite this apparent progress, it was quite a let-down to hear from the regional manager of the UNDP in Mitrovica, that Kosovo’s patriarchal environment is not exactly conducive to female leadership in the reconciliation initiatives that they organised… About 95% of the participants at these meetings between the Albanian and Serb Kosovar communities were male. This is quite a shame, considering that literature written about post-conflict regions demonstrates that often women are more willing to enter reconciliatory efforts, and show more willingness to forgive former foes, in order to secure a better future for their children. In this respect, progress in Kosovo, and in the rest of the world for that matter, is impeded by the restrictions set on women to participate in politics, peace building activities and public life.