prijava
SARAJEVO, January 16 (FENA) - At the session held on 19 December, The Constitutional Court of BiH adopted the appeal of the Sarajevo Open Center and others, and made a decision on admissibility and merits confirming that the public authorities of the Sarajevo Canton have violated the right to freedom of assembly of LGBTI persons by failing to ensure the safety of the participant at 2014 Merlinka Festival.
The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina also affirmed that the public authorities failed to ensure the safety of the participants, but also to conduct a thorough investigation and sanction the perpetrators of violence, through which they violated the prohibition of being subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment and therefore enabled the homophobic and transphobic violence to occur at the Festival itself.
According to the decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH, the governments of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sarajevo Canton have to pay a total amount of 8,000 KM to the appellants in compensation for the violence, fear and stress the appellants experienced, within next 3 months.
At the Merlinka Festival that was held at Kriterion Cinema in Sarajevo on 1 February 2014, fourteen masked attackers came to the event and violently stopped the discussion and attacked the participants of the Festival. Two persons suffered physical injuries and were taken to the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo.
Even though the Sarajevo Open Center filed criminal charges with the Prosecutor’s Office of the Sarajevo Canton against the attackers, as well as against the responsible police officers, concluding with December 2018, proceedings were initiated against only one suspect.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted a procedure to investigate the responsibility of police officers for their non-attendance at the Festival at an agreed time, and though the responsible persons were first sanctioned, they were relieved of the responsibility after their appeal.
For these reasons, the Sarajevo Open Center and 10 other appellants submitted an appeal to the Constitutional Court of BiH in November 2016, asking the Court to determine the responsibility of the competent institutions for violating the freedom of assembly of LGBTI persons, as well as for the failure to provide safety to participants and to process the perpetrators of violence.
Emina Bošnjak, Executive Director of the Sarajevo Open Center, confirmed that this decision of the Constitutional Court is a great victory for the LGBTI community and is especially significant in the light of the obstructions of the freedom of assembly of LGBTI persons in the Sarajevo Canton over the past two years.
Bošnjak stressed that freedom of assembly is one of the basic human rights and that is especially important for affirming the interests of marginalized social groups such as LGBTI community, and announced significant steps that the Sarajevo Open Center will take in the future in this regard and in the light of this decision.
Vladana Vasić, Advocacy Manager at the Sarajevo Open Center, emphasized that this decision is also important in the context of combating violence against LGBTI persons and recognizing the unwillingness and hesitation of the competent institutions to sanction such behavior.
Vasić added that the Merlinka Festival has become a symbol of resistance to the violence and repression against LGBTI persons, and invited everyone to visit this year’s Merlinka festival, which will take place from 7 to 9 February, with the full program available on the Sarajevo Open Center’s website and on social media, announced the Sarajevo open Center.
(FENA) S. R.
