Roundtable “Good practices and policies in the fight against homophobia” The roundtable “Good practices and policies in the fight against homophobia” held in Sarajevo opened a discussion on the position of LGBT people and their rights in BiH, through the exchange of experiences and practices from the region. The roundtable is one of the activities of the project “Coming out! Advocating promotion and protection of LGBT rights” which is implemented by the Heinrich Böll Foundation – Office for Bosnia and Herzegovina, in partnership with the Sarajevo Open Center and CURE Foundation, with financial support from the European Union.
“I think there has been great progress in Europe over the past decade in terms of the fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation. I must remind you that the laws and policies of the EU are based on equality and non-discrimination in terms of sexual orientation, and that such discrimination is prohibited in the EU,” said Head of Operations in the EU Delegation to BiH, Holger Schroeder.
Mr. Schroeder reminded that Members of the European Parliament advised Bosnia and Herzegovina that the anti-discrimination laws and policies should be better enforced. They expressed concerns about hate speech, threats, and harassment directed at LGBT people, and said efforts must continue to achieve an inclusive and tolerant society.
The roundtable was attended by representatives of various sectors from BiH – health, justice, education and civil society- who had the opportunity to hear experiences from Montenegro and Serbia which were presented to them by Adviser to the Prime Minister of Montenegro for Human Rights and Protection against Discrimination Jovan Kojicic, and Programme Director for the Western Balkans in Civil Rights Defenders, Goran Miletic. Jasminka Dzumhur, BiH Ombudsman, spoke about the situation in BiH.
“When we talk about LGBT rights in BiH in terms of legislation, we can say that there is a little progress in the sense that the laws on gender equality and non-discrimination are adopted, but these laws still have weaknesses that need to be improved when it comes to definition of their rights. The biggest weakness in the system is still the application of the laws, not only in terms of LGBT population but generally when we speak about human rights. Although the law on non-discrimination was adopted in 2009, unfortunately it has not yet been implemented in practice. Every such project contributes to spreading comprehension of the state to ensure the rights of every person regardless of his or her specificity”, said Dzumhur.
The main objective of the project is to promote and protect the rights of LGBT people, and the knowledge of causes of homophobia, its suppression and elimination, reported the Delegation of the EU to BIH.
(europa.ba)
