A/HRC/14/16
56.
Bosnia and Herzegovina thanked numerous donors that had helped the country to
resolve the problem of mine clearance, which remained an enormous problem for the
country and its populations.
57.
The judiciary was fully independent when it came to the appointment or removal of
judges. The country had a plan to resolve all war crimes cases within a reasonable period of
time; there were 1,500 court cases, involving 10,000 suspects related to war crimes. The
process of reforming the Criminal Code had been completed two months previous, and the
issue related to harmonizing the definition of rape and sexual violence would be
considered.
58.
Bosnia and Herzegovina was deeply involved in the process of acceding to the
European Union. Much work had been done to improve the judiciary and to build the
administrative framework, but there were still areas in which efforts had to be consolidated.
The representative of the entity Republic of Srpska stated that the Republic of Srpska
respects freedom of expression, but that some of the media deviated from elementary
responsibility towards the truth and the public. He stated that the Prime Minister of the
Republic of Srpska had been attacked by an FTV journalist without any evidence and that
the representatives of the Republic of Srpska in common State bodies were characterized as
members of the Third Reich. There were omissions in the national report regarding the law
on the termination of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Srpska. In fact, the law had been
adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska. Another fact that was not
mentioned in the national report was that the Republic of Srpska had invested 40 million
KM in the sustainable return of Srebrenica. Concerning minorities’ rights, the capital of the
Republic of Srpska, Banja Luka, had been given an award by the Council of Europe for
social inclusion and for the status of national minorities.
59.
The issue of hate speech and tolerance was very sensitive in Bosnia and
Herzegovina; fortunately, there were several institutions to follow up on and monitor such
cases.
60.
Gender equality agencies at the State and Entities levels followed up on the
implementation of the law on gender equality.
61.
In acceding to the Roma Decade, Bosnia and Herzegovina had decided to take a
serious step in developing a national system for the protection of the most vulnerable
category of the population. Several civil society organizations, as well as Roma
associations, were part of that project. The programme for the registration of Roma children
at birth was ongoing, with the assistance of UNICEF. The country was currently preparing
a national methodology to facilitate the monitoring of all cases involving discrimination,
which included racially motivated incidents. In recent years, the courts had prosecuted at
least 30 cases related to incitement or racial or ethnic intolerance.
62.
The plan to combat violence against children had been identified as a successful
strategy. There were similar programmes related to combating domestic violence and the
trafficking in human beings. Specific actions were carried out to fight the phenomenon of
children forced into street begging.
63.
Regarding the recent events involving discrimination against sexual minorities, the
Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees had been responding from the very beginning,
seeking to ensure an effective end to any form of condemnation of differently oriented
persons. Parliament would have to address the question of legalizing gay marriage. The law
on the prohibition of discrimination set out an adequate approach to the prohibition of
discrimination.
64.
Very concrete action had been taken to tackle the problem of displacement. The
revised national strategy for the implementation of annex VII of the Dayton Agreement had
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