The UN General Assembly declared August 22 as the International Day of Remembrance for Victims of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, expressing solidarity with people who suffered because of their religious beliefs or worldview and pointing out the importance of tolerance, the fight against discrimination, interreligious and intercultural dialogue and respect for diversity.
Violence based on religion or belief is often preceded by stereotypes and prejudices that spread through social and media narratives, statements by public figures and other forms of public action, but also through education. Such narratives can turn into hate speech and create an environment conducive to discrimination, harassment and physical violence. A special challenge is the online space, where messages of hate can spread quickly and massively, including with the encouragement of public figures.
In its Special Report on Institutional Anti-Muslim Hatred and Islamophobia in the RS from April 2025, the Commission for Freedom of Religion of the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina warned the public about the emergence of “politically structured Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred that operates through government institutions and uses the rhetoric of fear, domination and ethnic cleansing”. The hate monitor of the OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the year 2025 recorded 122 hate incidents, of which 95.45 percent were motivated by the ethnic or religious affiliation of the victim. During the same year, through media monitoring, the commission recorded 16 hate incidents related to the victim’s Islamic affiliation. Most of these incidents took place in returnee communities, where Muslims represent a minority community or a social group particularly exposed to discrimination.
The Commission for Freedom of Religion recalls that public authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina have a positive human rights obligation to ensure the effective prevention, investigation and prosecution of hate speech and hate crimes. Delays in proceedings, inadequate penal policy, lack of consistent action by competent institutions and ignoring victims can send a message about the social acceptability of such behavior, contribute to its repetition and further violate the dignity of victims and their freedom to enjoy the right to freedom of religion or belief without fear.
In the year in which we mark the 60th anniversary of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the 45th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, the Commission for Freedom of Religion calls on public authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to ensure the efficient, timely and impartial prosecution of incidents and crimes motivated by hatred, including acts motivated by the real or presumed religious affiliation or belief of the victim, and to adequately identify and record elements of hatred and discriminatory motive in the proceedings.
The commission also calls on public authorities to improve protection and support for victims, ensure consistent application of national and international standards for the protection of freedom of religion or belief and the prohibition of discrimination, and pay special attention to returnees and other minority communities that are more exposed to incidents motivated by hatred.
At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen preventive action and public responsibility through the suppression of stereotypes, prejudices and hate speech, the involvement of educational institutions, the media and civil society in the promotion of tolerance and dialogue, as well as the timely and adequate public reaction of public officials to hate incidents. Public figures have a special responsibility because their speech can significantly influence the shaping of public opinion and social attitudes towards religious and other minority communities.
The fight against violence based on religion or belief is not only a matter of reaction after the incident, but also a matter of prevention, institutional responsibility and creating a social environment in which no person should fear because of his religion, belief, membership of a religious community or public manifestation of religious affiliation.
The Commission for Freedom of Religion IZ in Bosnia and Herzegovina reminds Muslim men and women that incidents motivated by hatred can be reported to the Commission by e-mail: verishkeslobode@rijaset.ba, by mail to the address: Kovači no. 37, 71000 Sarajevo, or by phone: 033 289 700.
Submitting an application to the Commission does not replace the initiation of formal proceedings before the police, the prosecutor’s office, the Human Rights Ombudsman Institution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and other competent institutions, Mina said.
