Sarajevo Open Centre condemns attack that occurred 24th of March 2013 in which are attacked the activists of organization Okvir, and we want to emphasize that lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons are a target to discrimination and violence in B&H society because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, but, because of the fear and distrust towards the state institutions, and because of their insufficient engagement in the field of protection of the rights of LGBT persons, these cases rarely get reported to the authorities.

This case of hate crime based on sexual orientation is certainly not the first one, but it is one of the few that made it into the public sphere and it gives a clear image of the situation that LGBT persons in B&H face every day.

Sarajevo Open Centre condemns this and all similar hate crimes based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity and calls on all levels of authority to react and publicly condemn this crime, and to adequately react in future to all cases of discrimination and violence towards LGBT persons.

This case, and other alike, have to raise awareness and increase sensibility of both state institions and the society at large, about the situation of LGBT persons in B&H and lead to adequate regulation and processing the discrimination and violence on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity, and decrease homophobia and transphobia in B&H society.

We would like to remind that B&H has been critized for unwillingness and lack of engagement of state institutions in the protection of rights of LGBT persons the way they provide protection to all other citizens of B&H by all relevant international and regional reports.

More about this attack you can read on this link.