The New Criminal Code Continues the Trend of Violating Human Rights in Republika Srpska

The National Assembly of Republika Srpska (NSRS) has announced that, during its Thirteenth Regular Session, it adopted the Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republika Srpska. This law has removed gender identity as a protected characteristic of transgender individuals from all provisions, including those related to hate crimes and hate speech.

We strongly condemn this deliberate regression and the reduction of legal protection for transgender individuals in Republika Srpska. Although these amendments may seem minor in comparison to other developments in Republika Srpska in recent times, they should be viewed as part of a broader trend of deteriorating human rights in the entity. Those who are willing to strip away protections for transgender people in the Republika Srpska are the same ones who are restricting freedom of expression by criminalizing defamation, labeling civil society organizations as foreign agents, or supporting the degradation of institutions and the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The RS government’s argument that these changes align the Criminal Code of RS with the RS Constitution and that gender identity will now be covered under the broader and more universal term “other personal characteristic” is neither consistent nor logical. In the specific provisions that were amended, all other protected characteristics—such as nationality and ethnicity—remain explicitly stated. It is evident that gender identity was specifically targeted for elimination at all costs, even at the expense of reducing existing legal protections.

This step has already been critically assessed and condemned by numerous international experts and institutions, including the UN Independent Expert on Protection against Violence and Discrimination based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, the UN Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights defenders, and the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Objections have also been raised by domestic institutions and non-governmental organizations, including Jasminka Džumhur, the Ombudsperson for Human Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the Advisory Board for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders within the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the Human Rights House Banja Luka; the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Banja Luka; and the Sarajevo Open Centre (SOC). These concerns were documented in the working materials for the NSRS session.

Once the Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republika Srpska are officially published, we plan to take all available legal measures to challenge the constitutionality of this regulation.