Nusreta Sivac

Nusreta Sivac (born 18 February 1951) is a Bosnian activist for victims of rape and other war crimes and a former judge.

Nusreta Sivac was born on 18 February 1951 in Prijedor, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia where she finished high school and then studied law.

[2] In April 1992, she was told by Bosnian Serb soldiers that she was no longer employed at the Prijedor Municipality Court.

Two months after the Bosnian Serb-formed Army of Republika Srpska took control of Prijedor, she was requested to appear at the local police station under the pretense that it was for questioning; however upon arrival she and 25 other women[3] were taken to the Omarska camp.

"[4] In early August 1992, the camp was visited by the Red Cross and members of the European press coverage, and it was closed immediately after.

[6] "The courage these women have shown coming forward and sharing their stories demonstrates the need to break the silence and stigma surrounding sexual violence in conflict ...

That year Sivac escaped to neighboring Croatia where she and fellow inmate Jadranka Cigelj started to gather testimonies from hundreds of rape victims.

The accumulated evidence unearthed the severity of wartime rape and is considered by the United Nations (UN) as a large "turning point" in helping recognize it as a war crime.

[5] In 1997, she and Cigelj were featured in Calling the Ghosts: A Story About Rape, War and Women, an Emmy-award-winning[7] documentary film by Mandy Jacobson and Karmen Jelincic that detailed their experience at Omarska camp.

[12] In 2003, Sivac and over 100 other survivors and relatives of victims of the Omarska camp held a commemoration ceremony for the first time.