Actually, you have touched upon a topic that has been very close to my heart for the entire term of my presidency, for the five years from 2011 to 2016, and it continues even after I ended my mandate, for these past three years.
The estimated number of survivors of sexual violence is about 20,000 women and men who were raped during wartime in Kosovo by the paramilitary and military forces of Serbia.
Despite that fact, I can say that even on our part we have not been so proud because for the 15 years after the end of the war, we kept this topic silent. We kept this a taboo topic. We have contributed for the past 15 years in building the stigma toward the survivors of this sexual violence by simply not speaking about this particular topic, this particular crime, that was used as a tool of war toward the innocent people of Kosovo.
Back in 2011 when I was elected, we started the first institutional approach to identifying the proper institutional steps and taking the necessary institutional steps with regard to their reintegration, rehabilitation and resocialization. This includes access to medical services for all the survivors of sexual violence.
Something that has not been properly addressed is this culture of impunity and not dealing properly with justice. Only about four cases have proceeded toward the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Only the hearings have taken place in these particular cases, and no proper results have been achieved in the process of the hearings and the indictments in the rape cases. Most of the cases have been reported as war crime cases because these are war crime cases, but none of them have been singled out as rape cases that have been used as a tool of war.
Most of the perpetrators are already in Serbia. Serbia is not co-operating with the jurisdiction of Kosovo or the institutions of Kosovo in order to share the data and the statistics with regard to the perpetrators of these horrendous crimes. All of the victims already know who have conducted these crimes because they were their neighbours or they remember them by their nicknames, by their ranks or by their tattoos if they belonged to any of the paramilitary forces.
We are, in a way, faced with this challenge of one side not being recognized at the international level. This starts with the UN because Kosovo is not a member of the United Nations. In a way, it is violating the convention on human rights by not recognizing that rape has been used as a tool of war toward the innocent citizens of Kosovo. At the same time, Kosovo is facing the lack of co-operation of our now-northern neighbour, Serbia, with institutions of Kosovo when it's a matter of justice. Unfortunately, for the past 20 years, we have built into this culture of impunity.
This is one of the main requirements and demands of the survivors.