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SARAJEVO, November 13 (FENA) - The United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva today presented a Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on the state of human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On this occasion, the UN in BiH and the Coalition of civil society organizations "BiH Civil Society Initiative for UPR" (coordinated by the Sarajevo Open Center) organized in Sarajevo a live coverage of the third cycle of the UPR for BiH, attended by representatives of government institutions and civil society in BiH, as well as representatives of diplomatic missions in our country.
The Universal Periodic Review on the State of Human Rights is a unique mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council aimed at the promotion of human rights in all UN member states by collecting relevant information from member states as well as information collected by the UN, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as information from other relevant stakeholders such as civil society organizations.
Program Coordinator at the Sarajevo Open Center Rasim Ibrahimagić said that participants of this unique event will be able to look at all relevant areas and aspects regarding recommendations for improving the human rights situation in BiH.
Before the start of the presentation of UPR for BiH, Ibrahimagić said that the Coalition of civil society organizations drew up a report and submitted it to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, referring to the recommendations of the previous cycle, four and a half years ago, and at the same time did a valorization of their implementation.
“What our report has shown is that the recommendations from the previous cycle have largely not been implemented, and that in segments where they have been partially implemented there are no specific indicators of implementation, laws and other acts adopted,” he specified.
Responding to the questions from the media, Ibrahimagić explained that, after the phase in which the UN member states would make recommendations to Bosnia and Herzegovina, our country would be able to accept, receive, or ignore those recommendations, but that the practice is for the recommendations to be accepted or at least acknowledged, which is followed by a stage in which BiH should draw up an action plan to monitor the implementation of those recommendations.
He said that this was a clear plan by which the competent institutions in BiH would commit themselves to the implementation of the said recommendations in a timely manner, which, in particular, means that all institutions competent for the human rights situation in BiH should actively participate in the process of implementation of these recommendations.
Commenting on the situation and experiences in this area, Ibrahimagić states that it has been an experience so far that the recommendations under the UPR have largely not been implemented, while, according to the national report produced by the BiH institutions, there are some areas in which they (the institutions) have evaluated themselves in a way that there is progress to a certain degree, to which the civil society organizations express their disagreement.
In this context, he recalled that the human rights situation in BiH, among other, is evidenced by the fact that BiH is the only country that has been in delay in submitting its reports as part of this process.
“If the recommendations are not implemented, then they must be repeated until it is clear to the decision-makers that these are things that are not only required by civil society organizations, but required by the international community and that BiH must tackle these key problems,” Ibrahimagić underlined, adding that it has been the practice that the UN Member States that make the recommendations continue to monitor their implementation in a specific area.
It is a process that all UN member states undergo, with a focus on the advancement of the human rights situation, where the UPR mechanism makes it possible to see the complete overview in terms of guaranteeing, exercising and protecting human rights.
(FENA) S. R.
