Third year in a row judges and prosecutors are being trained on human rights of LGBTI people

After six years of working on the regulation of hate crimes, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, finally provided for more severe punishment of criminal offences motivated by hatred and prejudice (hate crimes) through its Criminal Code. Although these long-awaited amendments seem as a cause for celebration, we still have a lot of work to do, in order to ensure their proper implementation. The situation is similar in the area of protection against discrimination, which is still in need of the education of practitioners, especially about the specifics of unequal treatment and the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons.

Sarajevo Open Centre and the Judicial and Prosecutorial Training Centre of FBiH, encouraged by these changes, have decided to continue offering their contribution to the combat against these crimes and to the protection against discrimination and will organise a two-day training for judges and prosecutors in FBiH. The training will be held on the 9^th and 10^th of May, on the topic of Anti-discrimination and criminal law: combating discrimination and violence against LGBTI people, experiences in BiH and the Region and it will be attended by 22 representatives of the judicial institutions of FBiH.

The goal of this education is to make judges and prosecutors aware of and to introduce them to the effective ways of protection from and prosecution of human rights violations based on sexual orientation, gender identity and sexual characteristics in BiH, in accordance with the domestic legislation, respecting the international and regional legal standards.