Prior to the UPR of BiH: No Positive Developments in the Field of Human Rights

For the upcoming Universal Periodical Review of BiH for the UN Council for Human Rights, BiH CSOs have prepared four statements. Sarajevo Open Centre made its contribution to two of the four reports as a participant of an informal coalition for human rights that gathered 20 CSOs from BiH under the Sexual Rights Initiative.

Sarajevo Open Centre’s contribution underlined the difference between legal defense of women’s rights and LGBT people and the reality of their implementation and respect in practice. The following aspects are emphasized: discrimination and the increase of the amount of hate crime against LGBT people and the passivity of the country and the ignorance of the problem. The violation of the right to assembly and the increased violence against defenders of human rights are pointed out as a major problem, as well as the promotion of intolerance within the educational system.

BiH, and most of all, its legal institutions, should busy itself with more proactively sanctioning of violations of human rights and building the trust of LGBT people in these institutions. It is unavoidable for civic employees and institutions to publically condemn cases of human rights violations as well as intolerance on the basis of gender, sex, and sexual orientation.

These documents will be accessible on our site after the analysis of the state of human rights in BiH before the UN Council of Human Rights.