The Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Girls - UNFPA

One <strong>of</strong> the issues UNIFEM addressed was violence against children and
sexual abuse <strong>of</strong> children, mainly girls. When this author tried to talk to Kosovo-
Albanian women about this serious issue, it was met with silence. Some <strong>of</strong> them
nodded their head, indicating that they knew that this occurred, but they would
not or could not talk about it. Violence against children is still a taboo, and there
is no information available about its frequency or forms. It is known that teachers
have long used violence in their work, as in beating pupils, and now there is
some discussion about forbidding such methods.
<strong>The</strong>re is a reason to look at activities <strong>of</strong>fered to boys versus girls in the
Kosovar reconstruction process. <strong>The</strong>re appear to be no gender-based
programmes and other activities for teenagers, except possibly working, walking
around and smoking. One <strong>of</strong> the things that Westerners notice in Kosovo is the
use <strong>of</strong> child labour, which is forbidden in most European countries. Boys
between <strong>of</strong> six and seven years <strong>of</strong> age sell cigarettes, lighters, telephone cards
and other items across Pristina, late into the night. Girls are rarely seen selling in
the streets. It begs the question if young boys have money, while girls have
none, or are these boys the breadwinners <strong>of</strong> their families? Among the Kosovo-
Albanian beggars <strong>of</strong> Pristina, beggars include young boys and girls. While no
information about their backgrounds or histories was available, given the strong
position <strong>of</strong> the Kosovar family, one wonders why and how certain people fall
outside society’s safety net.
Minority Women
<strong>The</strong> number <strong>of</strong> people belonging to the minority population in Kosovo is
estimated to be about 200,000. Serbs are the largest group, followed by the
Roma people, Turks, Goranci and others. After the conflict, thousands <strong>of</strong>
minority people fled the revenge <strong>of</strong> the returning Kosovo-Albanians. It is
estimated that approximately 200,000 Kosovo-Serbs are internally displaced in
Serbia. After a decade <strong>of</strong> conflicts in the former Republics <strong>of</strong> Yugoslavia, the
number <strong>of</strong> displaced persons in Serbia totals approximately 600,000 people.
Efforts by the international community to encourage minorities to return to
Kosovo, including those by UNHCR, are so far without much success. 78
<strong>The</strong> situation <strong>of</strong> minority women in Kosovo calls for a special attention.
Minority women face serious problems such as isolation, insecurity, high
unemployment rates, poverty, lack <strong>of</strong> freedom <strong>of</strong> movement, violence against
themselves and their children, and limited access to social services. It is known
that the birth rate is extremely high among Roma women, but the exact figure is
not known. Infant and maternal mortality is also high within the Roma
communities, along with poverty and illiteracy among women. Many Roma girls
78 UNHCR and OCHA reports from Kosovo 2001.
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