Kathryn Bolkovac

Last updated

Kathryn Bolkovac
Bornc. 1961
Ohio, United States
Years active1999–present
Movement Human trafficking
Websitebolkovac.com

Kathryn Bolkovac (born c.1961) [1] is a human rights advocate, consultant, former police investigator with the Lincoln Police Department, and former monitor with United Nations International Police Task Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She came to prominence when she sued her employers for unfair dismissal after she lost her job following her attempts to expose sex trafficking in Bosnia. Her story was shown in the film The Whistleblower and told in the nonfiction book, The Whistleblower.

Contents

Bosnia

Bolkovac left the Lincoln Police Department in 1999 [2] and signed a contract with DynCorp Aerospace, a British subsidiary of US based DynCorp International. DynCorp had a $15 million UN-related contract to hire and train police officers for duty in Bosnia. [3] [4] After a week at the company's training facility in Fort Worth, Texas, Bolkovac was sent to Sarajevo, Bosnia [2] where she worked as a human rights investigator for three months. She was then moved to Zenica, 70 km (43 mi) north of Sarajevo to work on a specialist case aimed at fighting violence against women. [2]

In July 2001, Bolkovac filed a lawsuit in Great Britain against DynCorp for unfair dismissal after a protected disclosure (whistleblowing). [4] They had claimed she was fired for falsifying time sheets. [2] On August 2, 2002 the tribunal unanimously ruled in her favour. [5] She reported that fellow DynCorp officers were paying for prostitutes, raping underage girls and participating in sex trafficking. [6] [5] While locals were prosecuted, any UN contractors involved had immunity from prosecution in Bosnia, although a number of these officers were forced to resign and leave the country, under suspicion of illegal activity. [7] Madeleine Rees, Head of Office in the region for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, testified in her support. In November 2002, an employment tribunal ordered DynCorp to pay Bolkovac £110,221 in damages. [8] She stated that the case settlement “didn’t really even cover expenses”. [9] The US Government continued their contract with DynCorp. [9]

Later career and activism

In 2015, Bolkovac graduated with a degree in political science from University of Nebraska–Lincoln. [10] Also in that year, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. [10]

She has continued to work against human trafficking and violence against women, and is a public speaker addressing trafficking, ethics and anti-corruption issues. Bolkovac has stated that she doesn’t consider herself an activist but “more of an advocate for change“. She designed and taught a masters level course at the University for Peace. [11] In 2020 she began working on launching a human rights curriculum for middle and high school students. [12]

Personal life

Bolkovac has three children from her first marriage, two daughters and a son. [13] [14] In 1999 she met Jan, a police officer for the Dutch Government, whom she worked with in Bosnia and had a 12-year relationship with. [15]

Media

Bolkovac's story was made into a film, The Whistleblower , starring Rachel Weisz as Bolkovac. It was released in 2010. Following a screening of the film, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened a panel discussion on sexual exploitation and abuse in conflict and post-conflict situations. [16] [17] The filmmaker and senior UN officials addressed issues raised in the film, including human trafficking and forced prostitution as well as the organisation's effort to combat sexual exploitation of women and children.

Bolkovac has also co-authored a 2011 book with Cari Lynn, The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors and One Woman's Fight for Justice. [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) was an international organization formed under the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1035 on 21 December 1995. It completed its mandate on 31 December 2002, when it was succeeded by the European Union Police Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual slavery</span> Slavery with the intention of using the slaves for sex

Sexual slavery and sexual exploitation is an attachment of any ownership right over one or more people with the intent of coercing or otherwise forcing them to engage in sexual activities. This includes forced labor, reducing a person to a servile status and sex trafficking persons, such as the sexual trafficking of children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DynCorp</span> Defunct American corporation

DynCorp, formally DynCorp International, was an American private military contractor. Started as an aviation company, the company also provided flight operations support, training and mentoring, international development, intelligence training and support, contingency operations, security, and operations and maintenance of land vehicles. DynCorp received more than 96% of its more than $3 billion in annual revenue from the U.S. federal government. The corporate headquarters were in an unincorporated part of Fairfax County near Falls Church, Virginia, while the company's contracts were managed from its office at Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Texas. DynCorp provided services for the U.S. military in several theaters, including Bolivia, Bosnia, Somalia, Angola, Haiti, Colombia, Kosovo and Kuwait. It also provided much of the security for Afghan president Hamid Karzai's presidential guard and trained much of the police forces of Iraq and Afghanistan. DynCorp was also hired to assist recovery in Louisiana and neighboring areas after Hurricane Katrina. The company held one contract on every round of competition since receiving the first Contract Field Teams contract in 1951.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child prostitution</span> Prostitution involving a child

Child prostitution is prostitution involving a child, and it is a form of commercial sexual exploitation of children. The term normally refers to prostitution of a minor, or person under the legal age of consent. In most jurisdictions, child prostitution is illegal as part of general prohibition on prostitution.

<i>Bacha bazi</i> Slang term for child sexual abuse

Bacha bāzī is a slang term used in Afghanistan, Pakistan and in the history of Turkestan for a custom involving child sexual abuse by older men of young adolescent males or boys, called dancing boys, often involving sexual slavery and child prostitution. Though outlawed, bacha bazi is still practiced in certain regions of Afghanistan. Force and coercion are common, and security officials of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan stated they were unable to end such practices and that many of the men involved in bacha bazi are powerful and well-armed warlords.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LOGCAP</span> Contingency program administered by the US Army

The Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) is a program administered by the US Army to provide contingency support to augment the Army force structure. The first three contracts were awarded to a single bidder in each round of competition. The fourth and current contract, awarded in June 2007, was split between three companies with each company having the opportunity to compete for task orders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human trafficking</span> Trade of humans for exploitation

Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation. Human trafficking can occur within a country or trans-nationally. It is distinct from people smuggling, which is characterized by the consent of the person being smuggled.

Some of the personnel of the United Nations peacekeeping are accused of commiting sexual abuse in general and of child sexual abuse in particular. An Associated Press (AP) investigation revealed in 2017 that more than 100 United Nations (UN) peacekeepers ran a child sex ring in Haiti over a 10-year period and none were ever jailed. The report further found that over the previous 12 years, there had been almost 2,000 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers and other UN personnel around the world. AP found the abuse to be much greater than originally thought. After the AP report, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, urged all countries to hold UN peacekeepers accountable for any sexual abuse and exploitation. As early as 2004, Amnesty International reported that underage girls were being kidnapped, tortured and forced into prostitution in Kosovo with UN and NATO personnel being the customers driving the demand for the sex slaves. The UN's department of peacekeeping in New York acknowledged at that time that "peacekeepers have come to be seen as part of the problem in trafficking rather than the solution".

<i>The Whistleblower</i> 2010 Canadian-German thriller film directed by Larysa Kondracki

The Whistleblower is a 2010 biographical drama film directed by Larysa Kondracki and starring Rachel Weisz. Kondracki and Eilis Kirwan wrote the screenplay, which was inspired by the story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska police officer who was recruited as a United Nations peacekeeper for DynCorp International in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999. While there, she discovered a Bosnian sex trafficking ring serving and facilitated by DynCorp employees, with international peacekeepers looking the other way. Bolkovac was fired and forced out of the country after attempting to shut down the ring. She took the story to BBC News in the UK and won a wrongful dismissal lawsuit against DynCorp.

Ms Sparky was a United States-based blog that focused on news articles, opinions, and lawsuits regarding war contractors, primarily US contractors of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) working in Iraq and Afghanistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larysa Kondracki</span> Canadian film director and screenwriter

Larysa Kondracki is a Canadian producer, director and screenwriter. Her debut feature film, The Whistleblower, was released in 2011 and received nominations for six Genies at the 32nd Genie Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. She has received international accolades for reporting true stories of victims of trafficking in the former Yugoslavia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in Europe</span> Overview of sex trafficking in Europe

Sex trafficking is defined as the transportation of persons by means of coercion, deception and/or forced into exploitative and slavery-like conditions and is commonly associated with organized crime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flavia Pansieri</span>

Flavia Pansieri was the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights at the level of Assistant Secretary-General. She was appointed to this position by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 15 March 2013, and resigned on 22 July 2015, departing on 31 December 2015 after the selection of her successor was announced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madeleine Rees</span> British lawyer

Madeleine Selina Rees, OBE is a British lawyer and current Secretary General of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She has spoken out against human rights abuses in Bosnia by peacekeepers and others working for the United Nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadia Murad</span> Yazidi human rights activist from Iraq and winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize

Nadia Murad Basee Taha is a Yazidi human rights activist who lives in Germany. In 2014, she was kidnapped from her hometown Kocho and held by the Islamic State for three months.

Virginia Louise Giuffre is an American-Australian campaigner who offers support to victims of sex trafficking. She is an alleged victim of the sex trafficking ring of Jeffrey Epstein. Giuffre created Victims Refuse Silence, a non-profit based in the United States, in 2015, which was relaunched under the name Speak Out, Act, Reclaim (SOAR) in November 2021. She has given a detailed account to many American and British reporters about her experiences of being trafficked by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Sex trafficking in Myanmar is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Myanmar is primarily a source and transit country for sexually trafficked persons.

Since the beginning of the Mexican Drug War in 2006, many women, of Mexican and other nationalities, have been victims of extortion, rape, torture, and murder, as well as forced disappearance, by belligerents on all sides. Women have been sex trafficked in Mexico by the cartels and gangs. The criminal organizations, in turn, use the profits to buy weapons and expand. They have harmed and carried out sexual assault of migrants from Latin America to the United States. The violence against women in the drug war has spread beyond Mexico to bordering and nearby countries in Central America and North America. The number of women killed in the conflict is unknown because of the lack of data. Women officials, judges, lawyers, paralegals, reporters, business owners, social media influencers, teachers, and non-governmental organizations directors have also been involved in the conflict in different capacities. There have been female combatants in the military, police, cartels, and gangs. Women have lost loved ones in the conflict.

Sex trafficking in the Philippines is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Republic of the Philippines. The Philippines is a country of origin and, to a lesser extent, a destination and transit for sexually trafficked persons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex trafficking in East Timor</span>

Sex trafficking in East Timor is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.

References

  1. ↑ Wilson, Jamie (November 27, 2002). "£110,000 payout for sacked whistleblower". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Insight: Kathryn Bolkovac, whistleblower". The Independent. January 19, 2012. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  3. ↑ "A 'Whistleblower' Made Into A Hollywood Heroine". NPR . July 30, 2011. Archived from the original on August 22, 2020. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  4. 1 2 Barnett, Antony; Hughes, Solomon (July 29, 2001). "British firm accused in UN sex scandal". The Guardian . Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  5. 1 2 Bolkovac, Kathyrn (January 22, 2011). "The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors and One Woman's Fight for Justice". The Guardian . Archived from the original on September 1, 2013. Retrieved January 22, 2011.
  6. ↑ "A 'Whistleblower' Made Into A Hollywood Heroine". NPR.org. July 30, 2011. Archived from the original on August 22, 2020. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  7. ↑ Isenberg, David. "Sex and security in Afghanistan". Asia Times . Archived from the original on October 7, 2009. Retrieved November 12, 2011.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  8. ↑ "£110,000 payout for sacked whistleblower". the Guardian. November 27, 2002. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  9. 1 2 Prez, Rebecca Cruise, Sam Des (February 13, 2015). "Former UN Police Investigator Explains The Problems She Faced As A Whistleblower". www.kgou.org. Retrieved August 26, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. 1 2 "Undergrad nominated for Nobel Peace Prize". news.unl.edu. March 6, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  11. ↑ "Consulting Experience". Kathryn Bolkovac. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  12. ↑ "Kathryn Bolkovac". Kathryn Bolkovac. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  13. ↑ "A 'Whistleblower' Made Into A Hollywood Heroine". NPR.org. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  14. ↑ "The Long Night". Columbia Magazine. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  15. ↑ "Truth Be Told: The Whistleblower". Tribeca. August 2, 2011. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
  16. ↑ "United Nations webcast: Panel discussion: Sexual exploitation and abuse in conflict and post-conflict situations". Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
  17. ↑ Mondello, Bob (August 5, 2011). "A 'Whistleblower' Against International Injustice". NPR . Archived from the original on August 22, 2020. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  18. ↑ Kathryn Bolkovac; Cari Lynn (2011). The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman's Fight for Justice . Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   9780230108028.
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