The House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament adopted today the Law on the Protection of Civilian Victims of War, which the population has been waiting for for almost three decades, and the Federal Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Adnan Delić, said that a lot of effort and knowledge was invested in the preparation of that law, both by the Ministry’s employees and and a representative of the association of civilian victims of war.
According to the voting results, there were 44 delegates “for”, 19 abstained and two against. The vote was preceded by a break, during which a session of the Club of Croats was held, which requested a statement from the House individually on the nine amendments they submitted to the text of the law, which the FBiH Government did not accept. Those nine amendments did not receive the necessary majority in the House of Peoples.
The draft of that law was adopted during the mandate of the previous government and both houses of the federal parliament and received the support of all those who were interested in that process. The protection of civilian victims of war is the joint responsibility of the Federation and the cantons.
The law foresees many improvements compared to the previous, general legal solution, and among other things, it is important to point out that the ban on using the realized right is lifted if the user of the right leaves Bosnia and Herzegovina for more than three months, which the previous law provided for.
The income tax for parents whose children were killed in the war is also abolished, and for the first time, the Law has introduced as categories civilian victims of war, victims of rape and sexual abuse, and children born from this crime, and victims of sexual violence and rape and persons who are victims of residual war material, the possibility of choosing a more favorable right is left in the context of the choice between personal disability allowance and monthly personal income.
In the transitional and final provisions, it is foreseen, among other things, that all competent first-instance authorities, for all existing users of rights, will pass new decisions on the further use of rights based on the provisions of this law, with the proviso that this will not require re-assessments of damage to the organism, re-obtaining expert opinion for a special category of civilian victims of war, nor re-establishment of the fact of a person’s disappearance or death, as a basis for exercising rights.
During the discussion on the law, it was pointed out that it was seriously drafted and that it brought significant innovations and improvements.
The House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament adopted the Draft Law on the Protection of Civilian Victims of War on July 25.
