Nataša Kandic
Encyclopedia
Nataša Kandić (born 1946 in Kragujevac
, Serbia
, Yugoslavia) is a Serbian human rights activist and the founder and executive director of Humanitarian Law Center
(Fond za Humanitarno pravo), an organisation campaigning for human rights and reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia.
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. The work of Humanitarian Law Center, established in 1992, is supported by a wide range of international bodies 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. 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".
The truth that Kandić maintains "must come out" is, it is claimed, particularly discomforting for Serbs. It includes the "smoking gun" video" 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. 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.
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".
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 as has her support of Croatian President Stjepan Mesić
, whom she described as a "proven anti-fascist in both word and act".
Her presence at Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence in February 2008 also attracted criticism in Serbia.
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".
À
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.
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".
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".
killed elderly people in Croatia
during the war. She was fined 200,000 Serbian dinar
s (around 2,000 EUR at the time).
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.
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
.
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.
Nataša Kandić's awards have included the following:
Kragujevac
Kragujevac is the fourth largest city in Serbia, the main city of the Šumadija region and the administrative centre of Šumadija District. It is situated on the banks of the Lepenica River...
, Serbia
Socialist Republic of Serbia
Socialist Republic of Serbia was a socialist state that was a constituent country of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It is a predecessor of modern day Serbia, which served as the biggest republic in the Yugoslav federation and held the largest population of all the Yugoslav...
, Yugoslavia) is a Serbian human rights activist and the founder and executive director of Humanitarian Law Center
Humanitarian Law Center
Humanitarian Law Center is a non-governmental organisation with offices in Belgrade, Serbia, and Pristina, Kosovo. It was founded in 1992, by Nataša Kandić, to document human rights violations being perpetrated across the former Yugoslavia in armed conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina...
(Fond za Humanitarno pravo), 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.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. The work of Humanitarian Law Center, established in 1992, is supported by a wide range of international bodies 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. 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".
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".The truth that Kandić maintains "must come out" is, it is claimed, particularly discomforting for Serbs. It includes the "smoking gun" video" 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. 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.
Specific controversies in which she has been involved include an argument in June 2003 with relatives of the Stolić family, murdered residents of Obilić
Obilic
Obilić is a town and municipality in central Kosovo, belonging to the Pristina district. The municipality includes the town of Obilić and 19 villages, with a total population of approximately 21,548....
, 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".
Her comments in May 2007 blaming the territorial designs of the Serbian political elite rather than the Croat military Operation Storm
Operation Storm
Operation Storm is the code name given to a large-scale military operation carried out by Croatian Armed Forces, in conjunction with the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to gain back control of parts of Croatia which had been claimed by separatist ethnic Serbs, since early...
for the departure of the Krajina Serbs
Serbs of Croatia
Višeslav of Serbia, a contemporary of Charlemagne , ruled the Županias of Neretva, Tara, Piva, Lim, his ancestral lands. According to the Royal Frankish Annals , Duke of Pannonia Ljudevit Posavski fled, during the Frankish invasion, from his seat in Sisak to the Serbs in western Bosnia, who...
from Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
ordered by their leaders caused controversy as has her support of Croatian President Stjepan Mesić
Stjepan Mesić
Stjepan "Stipe" Mesić is a Croatian politician and former President of Croatia. Before his ten-year presidential term between 2000 and 2010 he held the posts of Speaker of the Croatian Parliament , Prime Minister of Croatia , the last President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia , Secretary General...
, whom she described as a "proven anti-fascist in both word and act".
Her presence at Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence in February 2008 also attracted criticism in Serbia.
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".
À
2003 Republic Square incident
In 2003 Kandić attended a protest rally held on the International Day of the DisappearedInternational Day of the Disappeared
The International Day of the Disappeared on August 30 is an annual commemoration day created to draw attention to the fate of individuals imprisoned at places and under poor conditions unknown to their relatives and/or legal representatives...
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.
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".
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".
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 NikolićTomislav Nikolic
Tomislav "Toma" Nikolić is a Serbian politician, President of the Serbian Progressive Party. He is also a former member of the Serbian Radical Party, where he served as Deputy Leader of the party and parliamentary leader during the absence of Vojislav Šešelj...
killed elderly people in Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
during the war. She was fined 200,000 Serbian dinar
Serbian dinar
The dinar is the currency of Serbia. An earlier currency also called dinar was used in Serbia between 1868 and 1918. The earliest use of the dinar date to 1214. Today's Serbian dinar is a continuation of the last Yugoslav dinar...
s (around 2,000 EUR at the time).
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.
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
People In Need (Czech Republic)
People in Need is a Czech nonprofit, non-governmental organization that implements humanitarian relief and long term development projects in crisis regions all over the world, while working to defend human rights and democratic freedom....
awarded Kandić and the HLC its Homo Homini Award
Homo Homini Award
The Homo Homini Award is given annually by the Czech human rights organization People in Need to "an individual in recognition of a dedication to the promotion of human rights, democracy and non-violent solutions to political conflicts"...
, presented by Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
.
In 2005 she was proclaimed an honorary citizen of Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
, and Slobodna Bosna
Slobodna Bosna
Slobodna Bosna is an investigative weekly newspaper based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is one of the few newspapers that sells in both Bosnian entities . Its frequent investigations of corruption have led politicians to sue the editor-in-chief Senad Avdić...
magazine named her Person of the Year in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
. 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
President of Croatia
The President of Croatia , officially styled the President of the Republic represents the Republic of Croatia in the country and abroad as the head of state, maintains the regular and coordinated operation and stability of the national government system, and safeguards the independence and...
to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of moral values.
Nataša Kandić's awards have included the following:
- Human Rights WatchHuman Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
Award (1993) - US and EU Democracy and Civil Society Award (1998)
- Martin Ennals Award (1999)
- Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights Award (1999)
- NED Democracy Award (2000)
- Geuzenpenning Award (2000)
- Roger E. Joseph Prize (2000), given by Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion
- Alexander Langer Prize (2000)
- 2000 Civil Courage PrizeCivil Courage PrizeThe Civil Courage Prize is a human rights award which is awarded to "steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk — rather than military valor." It is awarded by the Trustees of The Train Foundation annually and may be awarded posthumously....
awarded by Northcote Parkinson Fund (now the Train Fund) - European Heroes Award - TIME magazine (2003)
- Honorable Doctorate of the University of Valencia (2003)
- Homo Homini AwardHomo Homini AwardThe Homo Homini Award is given annually by the Czech human rights organization People in Need to "an individual in recognition of a dedication to the promotion of human rights, democracy and non-violent solutions to political conflicts"...
- People in Need FoundationPeople In Need (Czech Republic)People in Need is a Czech nonprofit, non-governmental organization that implements humanitarian relief and long term development projects in crisis regions all over the world, while working to defend human rights and democratic freedom....
(2003) - Honorary Citizen of Sarajevo (October 4, 2005)
- Person of the Year in Bosnia and Herzegovina - Slobodna BosnaSlobodna BosnaSlobodna Bosna is an investigative weekly newspaper based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is one of the few newspapers that sells in both Bosnian entities . Its frequent investigations of corruption have led politicians to sue the editor-in-chief Senad Avdić...
magazine (2005) - Order of Danica Hrvatska with the effigy of Katarina Zrinska (2006)