Coalition for combat against hate speech and hate crime continues its lobbying for the adoption of the amendments to the Criminal Code of FBiH. On this occasion, Assotiation for Democratic Initiatives (ADI) and Foundation Mediacentre (FMC) have organised a presentation of the work of the Coalition in 2013, on 18^th of Decembre in Mediacentre Sarajevo. Coalition’s work has been presented by Snježana Ivandić (ADI), Vladana Vasić (Sarajevo Open Centre) and Tatjana Udovičić (Press Council in BiH).

The presentation raised the concern that the level of hate speech in BiH will most certainly increase during the election campaign, which makes the adoption of the proposed amendments to the Criminal Code not only necessary but also urgent in order to sanction the expected incidents.

“Ideology and hate speech are closely connected to each other since 1992. So BiH must develop a legal mechanism to regulate this area. It is difficult in a country that has gone through a catharsis to even talk about hate speech. In Bosnia and Herzegovina there is a great lack of knowledge whether a politician has the right to say whatever he wants, even when it comes to hate speech, “said Snježana Ivandic Ninkovic.

Hate crime amendments to the Criminal code in Republika Srpska are already adopted, and in Federation of BiH similar amendments passed in the Hosue of Representatives but were not adopted in the House of Peoples.  Proposed hate speech amendments to the Criminal code of FBiH predict a 3 months to 3 years prison sentence.