Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina

On November 22^nd the UPR Pre-Session for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) took place in Geneva. The Pre-Sessions, organized by the Geneva based NGO UPR-Info, provide a prominent space for civil society to spotlight the most pressing human rights issues in their respective country. It allows for direct contact with representatives of Permanent Missions in Geneva who will conduct the review of the country during the 48^th UPR Working Group Session on January 29, 2025. For the Pre-Sessions, FES Geneva regularly teams up with local partners from FES country offices to facilitate their participation in Geneva. This time Katarina Zrinjski, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIRN BiH), and Darko Pandurević, Sarajevo Open Centre (SOC), participated in the Pre-Session as part of a larger civil society delegation of the BiH Civil Society Initiative for UPR. We conducted a written interview with them on why the UPR is an important part of their work.

FES Geneva: Your organizations submitted a report to the review of BiH in the UPR process and you are now following the different steps in Geneva. Why is the UPR a relevant process for your work?

Katarina Zrinjski (KZ): This is the first time BIRN BiH is taking part in UPR process, so we do not have any previous experience related to it. But we anticipate the benefice in the next cycle to use recommendations related to our fields of work as additional advocating tool when negotiating and cooperating with institutions for changes and adoption of new regulative and laws.

Darko Pandurević (DP): This is the second cycle that SOC is coordinating the coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) regarding the UPR process. We are one of just a few organizations with experience and continuity in this area. This process is relevant because it is a unique opportunity to present the human rights picture and advocate on such a high level and to so many relevant international stakeholders. We have witnessed in the past cycle how effective the recommendations and inputs that our coalition provided were.

You came to Geneva for the UPR Pre-Session of BiH and to meet representatives of permanent missions. How do the Pre-session and other meetings help you in your advocacy work? Do you have any other activities planned before the review of BiH in January 2025?

KZ: This was a great opportunity for us to explain urgent matters related to the human rights situation in BiH to the Permanent Missions, emphasising the most important ones that would be crucial to be included in the recommendations. One on one meetings are always better than email communication, since there is space for exchanging opinions and opportunity to give additional information and explanations if needed.

DP: We have planned several activities in BiH where we will present our main advocacy points from Geneva to local stakeholders. We plan to launch our online monitoring tool for the upcoming UPR cycle as well and to do a lot of promotion and communication activities towards the public.

What are the most important issues you want to see addressed during the review of BiH in January?

KZ: For BIRN BiH there are three major points related to the transitional justice process in the country: firstly, the adoption of a national strategy for transitional justice, securing presence and involvement of civil society organizations in the process of its development; secondly, to produce a new National War Crimes Processing Strategy with realistic goals and effective plans for finalizing all war crime cases in the country; and thirdly to start the practical implementation of the criminal law provisions related to the denial of genocide and war crimes. Genocide and war crime deniers should be prosecuted.

DP: There is a sense of an ongoing backslide in the field of human rights of BiH. Some of the more pressing issues are attacks on the freedom of association and initiatives to introduce a Foreign Agents Law. BiH is a country of systemic and institutional discrimination, most famously ethnic discrimination in the election process and education (segregation, known as two schools under one roof). However, as an organization working on human rights of LGBTI I must mention institutional discrimination of same-sex couples. Introducing same sex-partnership legislation is long overdue.

Once BiH has received its recommendations, the government will have to implement them over the next 4.5 years. How will you follow up the process at the national level during this time?

KZ: BIRN BiH became part of the BiH Civil Society Initiative for UPR at the beginning of 2024, so we will definitely take actions within this initiative in the following years and advocate for the recommendations related to our work. BIRN BiH follows institutional, especially judiciary related changes on State and Entity levels, so it will be easy for us to connect UPR recommendations with potential changes or the lack thereof, may they be positive or negative.

DP: The UPR process will be very beneficial for us human rights advocates in BiH as it gives us another tool and more leverage to advocate for the necessary changes that the government is reluctant to do. As I stated, we plan to create a website where the recommendations will be easily trackable for CSOs the broader public as well as for government bodies. BiH is a small country so with a bit of strategy in communication, some of the pressing issues can be pushed to get the public attention and that will be one of the main focuses as well.

ABOUT

Katarina Zrinjski has been working on projects promoting peacebuilding and reconciliation in the Balkanssince 2010. She has expertise in transitional justice topics in Bosnia, monitoring the work of the judiciary in cooperation with NGOS in country and abroad. As a project manager in the BIRN BiH since 2014, she has broadened her knowledge and scope of work to security and corruption topics. The focus of her advocacy activities is on war crime prosecutions, rights of the victims, andthereformation of the judiciary.

Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina, founded in 2004, is part of BIRN Network. BIRN BiH is justice-sensitive, dedicated to objective reporting and monitoring of important processes in the society, with prior involvementpredominantly in the war-crime cases monitoring. Beside war crime trials, BIRN BiH systematically monitors and reports on other transitional justicetopic Since 2015 it has expended its focus of action to topics like terrorism, corruption, organized crime, as well as far-right and disinformation in the digital age. For its work in the transitional justice field, BIRN BiH has been awarded several international awards such as the European Press Prize.

Darko Pandurević has been a program and advocacy manager at SOC since 2021, having been involved in SOC’s activities as a volunteer in LGBTI program and a project assistant in the coordination of the Initiative for the Monitoring of EU Integration in BiH activities since 2015. The focus of his work are human rights, legal counselling for LGBTI people, participation in research and amendments to existing regulations, and training activities in human rights, hate speech and discrimination. He graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Sarajevo.

The Sarajevo Open Centre (SOC) is a civil society organization that works on advancing human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It initiates and creates systemic social changes, emphasizing gender equality and the situation of LGBTI+ persons. SOC believes in a fair, democratic, and inclusive society, based on equal rights and opportunities for all.

MORE INFORMATION:

• All information (including factsheets) on the Pre-Session of Bosnia and Herzegovina organized by ‘UPR-Info’ 
• Information on Bosnia and Herzegovina in the UPR in the UPR-Info Database
• Information by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Bosnia and Herzegovina in the UPR
• Website of FES Bosnia and Herzegovina and the translated version of this article