“Numbers of Life” presented in Kriterion

Numbers of life – analysis of the results of the research on needs of LGBT persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina was presented yesterday, on October 22, 2013, in Art Cinema Kriterion. This publication, which is the result of cooperation between Sarajevo Open Centre and Open Society Fund, BiH, was presented by Saša Gavrić, Executive Director of Sarajevo Open Centre, Alma Midžić, a collaborator on the research, and Jasmina Čaušević, author of the analysis.

Sarajevo Open Centre has been working on the research of problems and needs of LGBT persons from February until July 2013, whose initial goal was to map the real problems and assess concrete needs of LGBT persons in BiH to work on solving those problems through concrete work with the institutions. 545 persons aged 15-54 took part in this research, replying to questions from different areas of life.

Alma Midžić, collaborator on the research, presented her experience and she explained that she faced problems during gathering of the data mainly because a small number of people consented to give their data because of fear, while online data gathering went without any major problems. During the research, she found out that the biggest problem of the LGBT community in smaller communities is the lack of social life, because there are no places where they could gather and meet.

Author of the analysis, Jasmina Čaušević emphasised that this research – beside fulfilling its basic goal – to investigate and map concrete problems and needs of LGBT persons in BiH, and getting concrete data which can be used in advocacy and lobbying – resulted with a quantitative and qualitative data base, which represents a foundation for further and more detailed research on needs and problems of LGBT persons in BiH.

Besides research on the needs and problems LGBT persons are facing in BiH, this research also included political participation of LGBT persons in our contry and, in the words of Saša Gavrić, this data can be used in further research on how political parties really work on advancing the human rights of LGBT persons and how they can be more focused on proactive approach when it comes to this issue.