Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) does not have a state law on registries, but this area is under the jurisdiction of two BiH entities, the Federation of BiH (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS), and Brcko District as a separate administrative unit in BiH.
According to the current laws on the registry of births, citizens have the option to enter their nationality in their birth certificates, but this is not a mandatory section.
The Constitution of BiH recognizes the three constituent peoples (Bosniak, Serb, Croat), members of the “Others” and citizens of BiH. However, it does not specify who constitutes the “Others” or give precise explanations about who the citizens of BiH are.
Different practices
Keeping registries is the responsibility of municipal and city registry offices, which act differently when it comes to entering nationality in birth certificates.
Thus, for some registry offices, the registration of Bosnian nationality is not disputed, while in others they insist on choosing between one of the three constitutive peoples or one of the national minorities in BiH.
“People submit a request to be registered as a Bosnian, a Bosnian-Herzegovinian, a Czech, or a Pole, as they feel. The laws do not specify that constitutive peoples must be strictly registered in that column. Any person can register their nationality, and nowhere is it said which”, according to the registry office in Travnik.
When asked if it was possible to enter Bosnian nationality in the nationality category on the birth certificate, the registry office in Mostar said that it was not possible.
“No, it can only be a Bosniak, a Croat, a Serb, or ‘Others’. I’m not sure,” stated the employee of this office.
Asim Mujkic, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo, explains that freedom of expression is an elementary human right. Violation of that right, he says, is characteristic only of “regimes with a large democratic deficit”.
“In terms of identity, it is very rude to impose on a citizen of this country how he must declare himself,” he points out, Radio Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
