prijava
SARAJEVO, September 6 (FENA) - Even though there have been positive developments, human rights of persons of different sexual orientation and gender identity continue to be insufficiently respected. The legislative framework in this segment has been improved in Bosnia and Herzegovina over the past three years, but failure to implement the laws is still a major problem, as well as the non-compliance of other regulations with the existing law provisions.
Discrimination is still widely present, as well as hate speech and violence against the LGBTI community, which prevents persons belonging to this population from living a normal life and engaging in all kinds of social activities.
These are some of the findings from the second annual report of the Sarajevo Open Center, which seeks to empower lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and inter-sex (LGBTI) persons, as well as women in particular, through strengthening the community, building an activist movement, promoting the human rights of LGBTI persons and advocating the improvement of legislation and public policies in BiH.
The annual report is based on monitoring the implementation of the Recommendation CM / Rec (2010) 5 of the Committee of Ministers on measures to combat discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
A volunteer at the Sarajevo Open Center, Amina Dizdar, presenting the report in Sarajevo today spoke about the chapter on freedom of public gathering, and highlighted last year's case of the organizer's withdrawal from the protest march of LGBTI persons in Sarajevo, although it was duly announced to the competent institutions.
In the chapter that speaks about banning hate speech and calling for violence, she said that the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Brčko District need to amend their criminal legislation in a way to ban hate speech and calls for violence based on person’s sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Sarajevo Open Center also believes that a unique system for monitoring criminal acts committed out of hatred against LGBTI persons should be developed, which would serve as a specific registry for collecting data on crimes of this kind.
The Family Law and the Law on the Protection against Domestic Violence should include the prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and sexual characteristics, said Amina Dizdar presenting the situation in many other social segments regarding the recommended measures to combat discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
(FENA) S. R.
