Congratulations Vasfije Krasniqi-Goodman on winning the 2019 Kim Bok-dong Prize. Vasfije is a member of SEMA, the global network of survivors and victims to end wartime rape facilitated by the Mukwege Foundation.
She is an activist at the Kosova Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims (KRCT) that advocates for the rights of victims of wartime sexual violence. Vasfije was the first person to publicaly narrate her trauma of sexual violence during Kosovo War. She was raped by Serbian police when she was 16 years old, and has since continued the movement for realisation of justice through punishment of the perpetrators and various events. She gave testimonies at the UN Human Rights Council and received Honorable Citizen Award by the president of Kosovo.The Korean Council established the Kim Bok-dong Peace Prize to follow the Japanese military sexual slavery victim Kim Bok-dong’s spirit for peace and women’s human rights and to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict (19 June).
The Korean Council aims to raise international awareness of sexual violence in armed conflict and to encourage victims to become a part of women’s human rights movement by providing support to them until the violence against women in armed conflict ends. The Korean Council hopes that the Kim Bok-dong Peace Prize could give all women’s human rights organizations and activists an opportunity to remember everyone who has been engaged in the movement to end sexual violence in armed conflict.
To find out more visit: http://www.womenandwar.net/?ckattempt=1
