41.2 percent of respondents believe that the current Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) completely hinders and slows down the country’s progress, while every third person thinks that the Constitution completely hinders its progress, and one–fifth of respondents believe that the situation in society today has nothing to do with the Constitution of BiH.
This was shown by a survey conducted by Srdjan Puhalo in December 2021 on a sample of 1.931 adult residents of BiH for the needs of the Citizens for Constitutional Change Initiative, and the questionnaire consisted of 28 questions, Federalna writes.
Almost 2.000 citizens were asked what they think about the BiH Constitution, whether they have ever invoked a constitutional provision, whether the current BiH Constitution hinders and slows down BiH’s progress, and whether the BiH Constitution contains provisions that precisely define equality between women and men.
The largest number of respondents (as many as 91.2 percent) believe that negotiations on changes to the BiH Constitution serve domestic politicians to keep political instability in thiscountry, and slightly more than half of the respondents think that the current Constitution needs to be changed and improved, while one third believes it is time to write a completely new Constitution.
As the most important reasons for changing or writing the new Constitution, they mentioned the need to precisely define all human rights that are protected, that residents have equal health and social protection throughout BiH, to eliminate discrimination in the election of members of the BiH Presidency, to give the state of BiH more powers, to eliminate discrimination during the elections to the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (PABiH), to precisely define how men and women are equal and to incorporate gender-sensitive language into it.
According to almost three–quarters of respondents, the BiH Constitution should contain affirmative action measures to eliminate inequality between men and women, and the same number of respondents believe that the new Constitution should contain a precisely defined possibility that individuals and groups can initiate changes to the Constitution.
As announced by the Citizens for Constitutional Changes Initiative, the answers and attitudes of the citizens obtained by this research will be sent to all members of the BiH Parliament, and they expressed hope that at least in this way the votes of citizens will reach those who should speak on their behalf and represent their interests.
Thus, the Citizens for Constitutional Change initiative advocates for a BiH Constitution that will ensure greater protection of human rights and freedoms with a special focus on the gender perspective.
The initiative was formed in 2013 by activists and organizations from all over BiH who advocate for sensitization and changes to the Constitution from a gender perspective with a vision to achieve equal and legal participation of women and men in private and public life in BiH.
E.Dz.
