Nataša Kandić

Nataša Kandić, 2010.

Nataša Kandić (Serbian Cyrillic: Наташа Кандић) (born 1946 in Kragujevac, Serbia, Yugoslavia) is a Serbian human rights activist and the founder and executive director of Humanitarian Law Center^[1] (Fond za Humanitarno pravo^[2]), an organisation campaigning for human rights and reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia.

Work

After finishing her studies in Sociology, Nataša Kandić became a dissident under Tito and a human rights activist after his death.^[3]

Kandić is the founder and executive director of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade, a human rights organisation acclaimed for the inspiring example of its systematic and impartial investigations of human rights abuses.^[4] The work of Humanitarian Law Center, established in 1992, is supported by a wide range of international bodies^[5] and Kandić's work has been recognised by numerous international prizes and awards.

Kandić campaigns for the rights of all groups and all minorities, especially in times of conflict. Since the start of the Yugoslav wars in the early 1990s she has been active in documenting and protesting against the atrocities committed between 1991 and 1999, including torture, rape, and murder. In 1991 she organized the Candles for Peace campaign in 1991 and in 1992 the Black Ribbon March.^[6] Her work has earned her the hatred of fellow Serbs and military leaders throughout the region and the admiration of human-rights defenders worldwide as she "forces governments to stop denying and covering up".^[7]

Controversy

Kandić's view is that "if you want to establish a certain system of values where the rule of law is paramount, the law must be applied to those who broke it. The truth must come out." Her persistence in documenting crimes and human rights abuses in the former Yugoslavia - "there at almost every step, listening and scribbling" - has been described as "like an annoying itch nationalists can't quite reach".^[8]

The truth that Kandić maintains "must come out" is, it is claimed, particularly discomforting for Serbs.^[8] It includes the "smoking gun" video"^[9] obtained by Kandić that showed Serb paramilitaries executing six Bosnian Muslim prisoners near Trnovo, providing proof of Serbia's role in the Srebrenica genocide, the worst massacre in Europe since the second world war.^[8] Throughout the war in Kosovo, she travelled back and forth across Serbia, providing information to the outside world about massive human rights violations being committed by police and paramilitary groups. The evidence she gathered has been vital to the preparation of indictments by the International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague.^[4]

Specific controversies in which she has been involved include an argument in June 2003 with relatives of the Stolić family, murdered residents of Obilić, that resulted in her being ejected from the relatives' property after she attempted to persuade them that "the crime was not committed by Albanian extremists, but by extremists on both sides".^[10][11]

Her comments in May 2007 blaming the territorial designs of the Serbian political elite rather than the Croat military Operation Storm for the departure of the Krajina Serbs from Croatia ordered by their leaders caused controversy^[12] as has her support of Croatian President Stjepan Mesić, whom she described as a "proven anti-fascist in both word and act"^{[citation needed]}.

Her presence at Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence in February 2008 also attracted criticism in Serbia.^[13]

Despite the public controversy Kandić insists that she does not believe herself to be in a minority and cites the professionalism of the many policemen who provide her with most of her information. In 2005 she observed that those responsible for the very things she spoke about had the loudest voice but "one day it will be different".^[8] À

2003 Republic Square incident

In 2003 Kandić attended a protest rally held on the International Day of the Disappeared in Republic Square in Belgrade, against the lack of information about Kosovo Serbs missing since the 1999 conflict. She was confronted and repeatedly insulted by other attendees who called her a "traitor". After Nikola Popović, an elderly Serbian refugee from Kosovo confronted her directly, she slapped him in the face and yelled back at him. The policemen present took her aside and requested her documents, which she protested saying they should instead request them from the other persons. The police later charged her for violent behavior in public and disobeying the police orders.^[14][15] The involved organisation of Serb refugees also filed charges. She justified her act of violence by asserting she had to "defend [myself] from Serbian patriotism".^[11]

In July 2005, the First Municipal Court in Belgrade dismissed the private lawsuit against Kandić. The attending supporters of the plaintiff proceeded to call the presiding judge a "Serb traitor".^[16]

Defamation conviction

Kandić was found guilty on charges of defamation in February 2009 after she failed to provide any evidence for her 2006 statements that Tomislav Nikolić killed elderly people in Croatia during the war. She was fined 200,000 Serbian dinars (around 2,000 EUR at the time).^[17]

International Awards

Nataša Kandić is a recipient of over 20 international, regional and national human rights awards.

In 2000 she was a recipient of the The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, awarded jointly by Amnesty International, Defense for Children, Diakonia, Human Rights Watch, HURIDOCS, International Alert, the International Commission of Jurists, the International Federation for Human Rights, the International Service for Human Rights and the World Organization Against Torture, granted annually to an individual or an organization who has displayed exceptional courage in combating human rights violations.^[4]

She was listed by Time magazine as one of its 36 European Heroes in 2003, and again featured as a Time European Hero in 2006. In 2004 the People in Need Foundation awarded Kandić and the HLC its Homo Homini Award, presented by Václav Havel.^[18]

In 2005 she was proclaimed an honorary citizen of Sarajevo, and Slobodna Bosna magazine named her Person of the Year in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In September 2006, Kandić became a member of the Order of Danica Hrvatska with the face of Katarina Zrinska, awarded by the President of Croatia to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of moral values.^[19]

Nataša Kandić's awards have included the following:

• Human Rights Watch Award (1993)
• US and EU Democracy and Civil Society Award (1998)
• Martin Ennals Award (1999)^[4]
• Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights Award (1999)
• NED Democracy Award (2000)
• Geuzenpenning Award (2000)^[20]
• Roger E. Joseph Prize (2000), given by Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion^[21]
• Alexander Langer Prize (2000)^[22]
• 2000 Civil Courage Prize awarded by Northcote Parkinson Fund (now the Train Fund)^[23]
• European Heroes Award - TIME magazine (2003)
• Honorable Doctorate of the University of Valencia (2003)
• Homo Homini Award - People in Need Foundation (2003)^[18]
• Honorary Citizen of Sarajevo (October 4, 2005)
• Person of the Year in Bosnia and Herzegovina - Slobodna Bosna magazine (2005)
• Order of Danica Hrvatska with the effigy of Katarina Zrinska (2006)^[19]

See also

• Sonja Biserko

References

1. ^ http://www.hlc-rdc.org/stranice/Linkovi-modula/About-us.en.html Humanitarian Law Center
2. ^ http://www.hlc-rdc.org/stranice/Linkovi-modula/O-nama.sr.html Fond za humanitarno pravo (FHP)
3. ^ http://www.gariwo.net/eng_new/giusti/giusto.php?cod=217&categoria=160&sopra=158&sotto=160
4. ^ ^{a b c d} http://www.martinennalsaward.org/en/winners/1999/
5. ^ http://www.hlc-rdc.org/Donatori/index.en.html
6. ^ Human rights in the time of war, Natasa Kandic
7. ^ http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_22/b3935405.htm
8. ^ ^{a b c d} MacKenzie, Ed (2005-07-11). "The truth must come out". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jul/11/warcrimes.gender. 
9. ^ Judah, Tim; Sunter, Daniel (2005-06-05). "How video that put Serbia in dock was brought to light". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jun/05/balkans.warcrimes. 
10. ^ Fama o kontramitingu
11. ^ ^{a b} "Branila sam se od srpskog patriotizma"^{[dead link][not in citation given]}
12. ^ Nataša Kandić (2007-05-09). "Losing ground". London: The Guardian "Comment is free". http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/natasha_kandic/2007/05/natasha_kandic.html. Retrieved 2010-05-26. "Today as in the past, it is the people who pay the price for Serbian political elites' territorial claims and are forced to leave their homes with few bundles, as was the case with the Serbs from Croatia in August 1995." 
13. ^ Prisustvo u kosovskoj skupštini -podrška nezavisnosti
14. ^ (in Serbian)B92. 2003-08-30. http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2003&mm=08&dd=30&nav_category=11&nav_id=118156&fs=1. Retrieved 2010-05-26. 
15. ^ (in Serbian)Glas javnosti. 2003-08-31. http://arhiva.glas-javnosti.rs/arhiva/2003/08/31/srpski/P03083001.shtml. Retrieved 2010-05-26. 
16. ^ "Attacks on Non-governmental Organizations, Media and Courts in Serbia (019-133-2)". Humanitarian Law Center, Belgrade, Serbia. 2005-08-20. http://www.lawinitiative.com/IzvestajiDrugih/avgust%2022-2005-Attacks%20on%20Non-governmental%20Organizations.htm. Retrieved 2010-05-26. 
17. ^ "Nataša Kandić osuđena za klevetu Nikolića" (in Serbian). Radio Television of Serbia. 2009-02-05. http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/sr/story/135/Hronika/42799/Nata%C5%A1a+Kandi%C4%87+osu%C4%91ena+za+klevetu+Nikoli%C4%87a.html. Retrieved 2010-05-26. 
18. ^ ^{a b} "Previous Recipients of the Homo Homini Award". People in Need. http://www.clovekvtisni.cz/index2en.php?id=549. Retrieved 17 April 2011. 
19. ^ ^{a b} "Priopćenja 129/06" (in Croatian). Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Croatia). 2006-11-08. http://rs.mvp.hr/?mh=337&mv=1942&id=2310. Retrieved 2010-05-26. 
20. ^ (in Dutch), accessed 27 February 2011
21. ^ "Natasa Kandic and The Humanitarian Law Center, Belgrade to receive the 2000 Roger E. Joseph Prize from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion", HUC-JIR News, HUC-JIR website. accessed 27 Fenruary 2011
22. ^ Alexander Langer Foundation website (in Italian), accessed 27 February 2011
23. ^ "Civil Courage Prize". civilcourageprize.org. 2010. http://www.civilcourageprize.org/honorees.htm. Retrieved 11 May 2011. 

External links

• Humanitarian Law Fund (Serbian) (English) (Albanian)

Persondata
Name	Kandic, Natasa
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1946
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death