This interview was produced by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT). It seeks to highlight voices of survivors of torture from around the world. IRCT is a member of the United Against Torture Consortium together with Omega, OMCT, FIACAT, APT, and REDRESS.
Shyhrete Tahiri-Sylejmani is a survivor of sexual torture from the Kosovo War. In April 1999, Serbian soldiers, with their faces covered, entered her home and raped her in front of her two small children.
Local rights groups estimate up to 20,000 women, and some men, were raped by Serb forces in Kosovo between February 1998 and June 1999. Yet intense social stigma around rape silenced survivors for decades. When she gave her first press conference in 2019, Tahiri-Sylejmani was only the second woman to speak openly and publicly about her ordeal.
“It was really difficult to make a decision to open up about what happened to me because I think it’s very sensitive and very painful. It hurts every day,” said Tahiri-Sylejmani, in an interview at the Kosovo Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims (KRCT), which specialises in documenting and treating wartime sexual torture. “They were there for me, the psychologist, and they are professional. How to prepare you, how to feel better, not pushing you, but making you comfortable. To go by yourself it’s really, really hard.”
The right to rehabilitation is guaranteed to survivors of torture under Article 14 of the UN Convention Against Torture, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly 40 years ago this December, an anniversary the United Against Torture Consortium (UATC) is marking with a series of interviews with torture survivors, experts and activists.
Founded in 1999 with support from UATC member the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), KRCT plays a leading role in upholding the Article 14 right of survivors to rehabilitation, including through its survivor engagement project.
During 2024, KRCT held a series of workshops with 32 female survivors of sexual torture, with support from Tahiri-Sylejmani. Following the series, 11 of the group felt strong enough to testify about their torture to the investigative unit of Kosovo’s police, having previously not done so. Four of the survivor group went on to participate in advocacy meetings with Kosovo’s Deputy Minister of Justice and Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani.
Since filing her own criminal complaint to Kosovo’s Special Prosecution for War Crimes and recording and publishing her interview, Tahiri-Sylejmani helps other survivors share their experiences as a member of the SEMA network and has spoken at high profile events in Europe and the United States, including at the launch of the UAT Consortium at the EU in Brussels.
“Sharing the story is like you take a burden from your soul that is hundreds of pounds, and you feel so much light in your soul,” said Tahiri-Sylejmani. “And I encourage them that healing is when you share your pain, when you share your story. That’s where the healing begins.”
Watch the full interview with Shyhrete Tahiri-Sylejmani here: