BiH is a country of origin, destination and transit for women, children and men who are victims of human trafficking. The poor socio-economic situation helps proliferation of trafficking-related crimes, but the Report on Human Trafficking in 2015 by the US also cites corruption within police structures as a contributing factor.[1] When we speak of norms, … Continued
Changes to the Criminal Law BiH In May 2015 the Parliamentary Assembly BiH adopted the Changes and Amendments to the Criminal law of Bosnia and Herzegovina,[i] which finally harmonized the definition of rape and other forms of sexual violence committed as war crimes against the civilian population or crimes against humanity, with international standards and … Continued
Women and girls are frequently exposed to serious forms of violence, especially physical and verbal violence, violence in the family, psychological violence, sexual violence and rape. These and other forms of violence against women are a serious breach of women’s human rights and are the main obstacles to achieving gender equality.[i] Statistics show that one … Continued
Women in party bodies Women are underrepresented in the main bodies of the key political parties in BiH. Extreme examples are two parties (SDA and SDS) in which the party president and all the vice-presidents are male. In other political parties women hold at least one vice-presidential seat, which amounts to representation of 10-20% (depending … Continued
The 1995 Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Resolution on Politics of Health for all Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina,[i] and the Gender Equality Law in Bosnia and Herzegovina all set standards and offer guidelines for organization of a healthcare system that will provide adequate help and protection to all citizens, aiming to improve the … Continued
Education – what do the statistics say? The latest available data on education of women was published by the Agency for Statistics BiH, like in previous years, and it has demonstrated the following: 36,939 students completed their primary education in 2014/2015, 18,246 of who were girls; 43,991 students completed their secondary education in 2014/2015, 21,402 … Continued
On Saturday, 7 May the lectures of the Module 2 (State, law, equality: de iure and de facto) at this year’s Žarana Papić School of Feminism took place. Natalija Petrić, lawyer, talked about the international legal and political standards in the area of domestic violence (violence against women), especially about their implementation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as about women’s rights in the system of UN, with a special emphasis on CEDAW.
The Constitution and the key laws The Dayton Peace Agreement recognizes the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of gender and it stipulates direct application of the European Convention on Human Rights and the CEDAW Convention. Unfortunately, despite the civil society initiatives the Constitution still does not recognize gender equality as a basic constitutional value … Continued
Improving the legal framework for gender equality in the Executive and in the Legislature The existing legal provisions – the gender quota for at least 40% of the less represented gender on the electoral lists (Article 4.19, Electoral Law BiH), the general and sanction-free provision on equal participation of women and men in the Government … Continued
On Tuesday, 19 April the second set of lectures at this year’s Žarana Papić School of Feminism, with the second generation of students, took place. In the scope of the Module 1 – Introduction to feminisms: History, terms, theory, Jasmina Čaušević, MA of social sciences in the field of gender studies, talked about the history of the movement – the beginnings of the feminist movements and women’s associations in B&H. In the scope of the Module 2 – State, law, equality: de iure and de facto, Adnan Kadribašić, lawyer, introduced the students to the international and domestic legal framework for gender equality and women’s rights.