Numerous residents of Jablanica and neighboring towns gathered at a protest rally in support of a girl who was seriously injured by her employer, the owner of the hotel. After the case was made public, associations, citizens, institutions raised their voices with condemnations. “Stop violence, violence against women” but also “voice for workers’ rights”.
Last week, 28-year-old Enisa Klepo was beaten by her employer at her workplace. This case caused a fierce reaction from the public, and several associations from Mostar, Sarajevo, Jablanica and Konjic organized today’s rally to once again point out the problem of violence against women and the need for better protection of workers’ rights.
In their demands presented at the meeting in Jablanica, the representatives of non-governmental organizations requested urgent and accelerated action by the institutions in the case of violence against Enisa Klepo, then criminal liability for the abuser and participant in the violence, and transparent prosecution in accordance with the current legislation.
The strengthening of legal mechanisms was also requested, i.e. toughening of penalties for perpetrators of violence against women and effective law enforcement to ensure that every case is processed in accordance with the law.
Activists said that it is high time that the Institute for Free Legal Aid of the Herzegovina-Neretva County started its work. They also requested access to quality and professional support for victims of violence, then the consistent implementation of the FBiH Labor Law, as well as changes to this law as soon as possible in order to restore dignity to workers, and the implementation of international conventions to which Bosnia and Herzegovina is a signatory.
According to the president of the Women’s Association “Most” from Jablanica, Camila Imamović, the physical attack on Enisa Klepo perpetrated by her employer, affected all women, especially activists who fight for women’s rights.
“We want to congratulate our fellow citizen Enisa, who dared to speak publicly about violence and what happened to her, and thank her for her courage. We should work to encourage women to report violence and we should appeal to the institutions to do their job responsibly as would restore people’s confidence,” she said.
She added that numerous cases of violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina remain unreported in society because people do not trust the institutions that should protect them.
Aldijana Trbonja-Tula, an activist of the “Citizens’ Initiative of Mostar” Association, said that the number of reported cases of violence in BiH is only the tip of the iceberg, especially when it comes to domestic violence.
“In this particular case, we are talking about violence at the workplace, namely physical violence, which is within the scope of the Labor Law. Cases of non-physical violence, i.e. mobbing, are rarely reported and we have information from the Ombudsmen of Bosnia and Herzegovina that in the first 11 months Only 36 mobbing cases were reported in 2022. It is interesting that the largest number of mobbing cases were reported by men,” she said.
She added that women generally do not report cases of violence, both at the workplace and in the family, for several reasons.
“The reasons are mistrust in the system, fear, and most often these reasons are of an existential nature. We should encourage all victims of violence, whether men or women, to report it, and in the case of Enisa Klepo, we must carefully follow the whole process to the end and react if the judicial institutions do not do their job properly,” concluded Trbonja-Tule.
photo: Igor Božović/BHRT
