In Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the last four years (from 2020 to 2023), 1,431 people committed suicide, according to the Center for Security Studies (CSS).
Based on the data collected through the analysis of the statistical bulletins of the Federal Bureau of Statistics and the Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Srpska, official data of the Brčko District Police of BiH and the media, it was established that in BiH in the period from 2020 to 2023, 1,431 people committed suicide, it was announced from CSS.
“Suicide is an active or passive self-destructive act in which a person knowingly and intentionally takes his own life due to various motives. Suicide is one of the rare phenomena that is completely free from religious, gender, racial, cultural, social, causal, value, time and age boundaries,” they explain from CSS.
As they further state, in terms of demographic characteristics, almost 80 percent of suicides are committed by men, and the largest number of suicide perpetrators in Bosnia and Herzegovina are over 60 years old, and it is believed that the cause of their act could be a feeling of ‘uselessness’ and neglect.
“One of the problems is that there is no unified register of suicides in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a perception is being created that such cases are being ignored,” CSS states.
At the same time, this organization warns that the data on the number of people who commit suicide in their later years should be a kind of alarm that requires greater engagement and the creation of a new value system for caring for the elderly.
“Therefore, the justified question arises to what extent we are becoming an insensitive society, given that cases of suicide and trauma that are subsequently faced by relatives of the victims do not arouse as much public interest as, for example, cases of murder, the number of which is significantly smaller,” it is stated in a statement.
