SONJA BISERKO

 SONJA BISERKO

 

Sonja Biserko, is born on 14 February 1948 in Serbia. She is a prominent leader and reformist well- known for her courageous and extraordinary contribution for democratic changes in Serbia and the region of Southeastern Europe.

Sonja Biserko holds a BA in Economics, School of Economics, University of Belgrade, 1970.

From 1974 to 1991 she worked as a diplomat in the federal administration of the former Yugoslavia, and from 1974 to 1979 she served at the Yugoslav Embassy in London, and from 1984 to 1989 as the representative of the SFRY in UN organizations based in Geneva. In the Federal Secretariat for Foreign Affairs, she was in charge of European affairs. She ended her diplomatic career in 1991, resigning dissatisfied with the policy of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. During the disintegration of Yugoslavia and at the very beginning of the war in Croatia, she organized a meeting of opposing politicians and activists in Geneva.

In 1994, she founded the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, of which she is the current president.

She is among the founders of the European Movement in Yugoslavia, the Center for Anti-war Action, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia and the Forum for International Relations. Worked on a variety of civil and human rights programs; Helsinki Watch, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, UN Center for Human Rights, Mazowiecki’s mission and the Tribunal in The Hague.

One of the most strategic projects she has been engaged in was the return of refugees, especially Serbs from Croatia. She was actively engaged in Kosovo issue since 90s. More than ten years engaged in the projects Dealing with Past. She closely worked with Geoffrey Nice’s team on Milosevic’s trial, as well as in other cases in The Hague Tribunal. She has a vast expertise in human rights, peace processes and justice stemming for her visionary political thinking and critical thinking capacities.

Sonja is one of the most prominent critics of the government, which she believes continues Milosevic's nationalist policies and that their unwillingness to confront Serbia as a state with responsibility for crimes is a major obstacle to Serbia's EU integration. In that sense, she is especially critical of the Serbian Orthodox Church and SANU. It has often been the subject of threats by Serbian nationalists.

Sonja was participant in Eric Lane Fellowship, Clare College, Cambridge, UK in 2012, Senior Fellow, US Institute for Peace, Washington D.C. in 2001. She was a member of the UN Commission on inquiry on the DPR Korea 2013-2014.

Sonja has a number of awards for humans rights work, including by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, NY;  the Weimar Award;  the Eitinger Award of the Oslo University; Honorary Citizenship of Sarajevo;  nominated within the 1,000 Women for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize; Majka Tereza medal for humanitarian activities.