Pink Report 2023. Annual Report on the State of Human Rights of LGBTI People in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Pink Report 2023. Annual Report on the State of Human Rights of LGBTI People in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary/Abstract: 2022 was a year that marked several key steps forward in BiH with respect the human rights of LGBTI persons. One of the steps was the adoption of Action Plan to Improve the State of Human Rights of LGBTI People in BiH. It is the first time that a public policy adopted at the state level aims to systematically and comprehensively respond to the various challenges faced by LGBTI people and to give clear instructions to and impose obligations on competent institutions at all levels of government. The period ahead of us will be a period of insisting on its implementation and reporting on the extent to which we, as a state, truly meet and fulfil what we committed to. The joint efforts of activists, Sarajevo Open Centre and a group of parents and their LGBTI children, placed the problems and challenges related to healthcare and administrative gender change under the radar of the cantonal and entity authorities; we hope that 2023 will ride that wave to lay the foundation for new regulations and practices that will fully respect the human rights of trans people. Unfortunately, the needs and position of intersex people still remain unrecognised by most health institutions. The extremely slow process of regulating same-sex partnership in FBiH received a small boost at the end of 2022, with the official conclusion of the expert meeting in the form of a public debate organised by the FBiH Ministry of the Interior; the meeting brought together representatives of the departments of social protection, the interior and justice from the entire Federation of BiH. The conclusion reads that it is necessary for the Federation of BiH to pass a law on same-sex partnership that will include the widest possible range of partner rights. Now that the new FBiH Government was formed in 2023, they inherit the obligation to continue the process by establishing a working group to draft the law. In the past period, several couples demonstrated readiness to seek protection through the courts and they have initiated or are planning to initiate court proceedings. All cantonal prosecutor’s offices in the Federation have appointed a contact person for hate crimes. This is the result of long-term work of Sarajevo Open Centre through advocacy, trainings and meetings. However, the attacks on LGBTI community and activists from March 2023 overshadowed to some extent all the above advances and once again showed the prevalence of homophobia in the public, political and institutional spheres. Despite significant steps forward in 2022, problems such as lack of security, domestic violence, peer violence, unsanctioned hate speech in public, and complete marginalisation in smaller areas of BiH remain. All the challenges, presented in detail in this report, also tell us in which directions we need to act. We hope that institutions and society will be ready to follow the pace necessary for social changes, the pace kept so far solely by human rights organisations and civil society activists.

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