Last week Sarajevo Open Centre has sent a memo with the initiative to use gender sensitive language in the Parliament of FBiH and in National Assembly of Republika Srpska. This request was sent to the Commission for Gender Equality at the FBiH Parliamentand to the Committee on Equal Opportunities of National Assembly of Republika Srpska.

The letter states that the use of gender sensitive language has its foundations in the BiH Antidiscrimination Law and in the BiH Gender Equality Law. It is practice of many European government institutions to use gender sensitive language, and thanks to the initiative of Ismeta Dervoz, gender sensitive language is used in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH since 2013. Within this initiative, Parliamentary Assembly adopted amendments to the following documents:

-Unique Rules for Legislative Drafting in the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina;
– Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives and the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly;
– The Instruction on the use of gender sensitive language in the Parliamentary Assembly BiH with the annexes: Individual instructions with examples and Table of functions, occupations and professions in Parliamentary Assembly BiH and the Secretariat of the PA,as well as the Guide for using the gender sensitive language in the Parliamentary Assembly BiH, as an accompanying document was published in 2014.

 Although in B/C/S languages masculine and feminine genders exist, women are often addressed in the masculine gender. In order to end this discriminatory practice, which hides women behind the male gender, Sarajevo Open Centre proposes to the Commission for Gender Equality of the Parliament FBiH and to the Committee for equal opportunities of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska the following:

1. Review and acceptance of the initiative and its proposal to the delegates at the session of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska and to the representatives in the House of representatives of Parliament FBiH;
2. Establishment of the working group which would make a draft of instructions that would explain how to use gender sensitive language in preparation of legal regulations, rules, communication, internal documents and materials, instruments and materials which are sent to other institutions, and in other situations in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska and in the FBiH Parliament (analogous to the document adopted at the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH );
3. Compose proposals for amendments to the Rules of Procedure of National Assembly of Republika Srpska and of both Houses of the Parliament of FBiH, so that the text of the Rules is written in gender sensitive language;
4. Propose to amend and update the Rules of the normative-legal nature for creating the laws and regulations in Republika Srpska and nomotechnical rules for drafting laws and regulations in FBiH, concerning the use of gender sensitive language in the preparation of these acts.

We hope that the Commission for Gender Equality of FBiH House of Representatives and the Committee of Equal Opportunities of National Assembly of Republika Srpska will recognize the importance of eliminating discrimination which women are facing every day. We also hope that these bodies will consider this proposal, in order to start using gender sensitive language in the FBiH Parliament and in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska.

The sent initiatives can be found here:
Initiative sent to Commission for Gender Equality of FBiH House of Representatives
Initiative sent to Committee of Equal Opportunities of National Assembly of Republika Srpska