On April 4, 2022, the Municipal Court in Sarajevo issued a first instance judgement in which discrimination against LGBTI persons was confirmed by a court for the first time in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The judgement refers to a public statement made by Samra Ćosović Hajdarević, a former member of the Sarajevo Canton Assembly, on her … Continued
We present you with the infographic overview of equality and the suppression of discrimination according to Sarajevo Open Centre data.
The number of incidents potentially motivated by prejudice, that are reported to the police in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is at least 175. the reported incidents most often include attacks and threats, damage to property, religious objects and cemeteries. Incidents towards Roma people and sexual minorities are not as much reported as the previously mentioned ones.
Considering that the Dress code rulebook of University of Mostar Law violated the Ani-Discrimination Law in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Gender Equality Law of BiH Sarajevo Open Centre sent appeals to the Gender Center of FBiH and to the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman.
We publish the report “Monitoring of the Implementation of Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation CM/Rec (2010)5 on Measures to Combat Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity”, author Amina Dizdar
In August 2017 the Ministry of Interior in Tuzla (MoI) disabled the name change of the person to a name that is not harmonized with the sex marker on the identification document, to a transgender person who filed this request. The employers of this MoI claimed that it is not possible to change the name which is in accordance with the gender identity, but not with the biological sex, before the person completely reassigns his/her sex surgically, and changes the sex mark on personal documents.
Because of their sexual orientation, LGBTI persons are exposed to different forms of exclusion, discrimination and violence. Unfortunately, that practice often starts in their families, among the people who, instead of supporting and accepting them for who they are, push them away and make their lives miserable.
In August 2017, Ministry of Internal Affairs in Canton Tuzla refused to process an appeal, filed by a transgender person, to change a personal name that is not in accordance with a sex marker in identification documents. Since the name is not in accordance with a sex marker in personal documents, authorized ministry officials argue that a person is not allowed to change their name in order to adjust it to gender identity until the person undergoes sex reassignment surgery.
For the first time in history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, transgender rights were discussed in the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina on May 17th, 2017. I talked, from personal experience, about problems that transgender persons are faced with due to chaotic law regulations that fail to provide rights and freedoms anticipated in Convention on protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, which is being directly applied in Bosnia and Herzegovina and whose acts have priority over all other laws.
On June 14th 2017, the European Parliament adopted three of its annual reports for candidate and potential candidate EU countries. In those reports MEPs have assessed the rights of LGBTI people in Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo, and recommended the countries to improve the situation.