Country/region: Afghanistan
Conflict: Civil war
Organisation: Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission
Field of work: Human rights
Between 1992 and 1994 Hauser, a specialist in gynaecology, brought into being the Medica Zenica women’s therapy centre in Central Bosnia with the support of female Bosnian professionals. The team supported women in the processing of their traumatic experiences. The medica mondiale e.V. association was founded and its sphere of involvement expanded first of all to Kosovo, then to Afghanistan, and subsequently to numerous other countries. Today, medica mondiale acts as a global advocate for women and girls who have experienced sexualised wartime violence in conflict zones. “There are things that women in Bosnia told me that I buried deep within myself, that I can’t talk about with anyone and wouldn’t want even a therapist to have to hear.”
In 2000, Hauser took over the management of medica mondiale. In her work she campaigns for the removal of the societal taboo that surrounds rape in wartime and makes use of various seminars to pass this message on to professional women in the affected areas.
The organisation describes its mission thus: “We are committed to working for and with women and girls all over the world who are affected by gender-specific, in particular sexualised, violence in wars and conflicts.” The standards developed for the trauma work are now applied all over the world. Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Burundi, Rwanda, DR Congo and Liberia are the conflict regions in which Medica Mondiale works.
For her initiative she has received numerous awards, including the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the alternative Nobel Prize, in 2008.
Links:
Medica Mondiale
http://www.medicamondiale.org/wer-wir-sind/struktur/der-vorstand-von-medica-mondiale.html
Wikipedia
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monika_Hauser
Alternative Nobel Prize: