The European Union and the Council of Europe have supported development of the Manual for civil servants in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) for recognising and dealing with hate speech cases. The Manual is now available online.
The Manual, whose author is Snježana Ivandić Ninković, focuses on illustrating the inadmissibility of the harmful effect of hate speech, but also on explaining existing mechanisms for prevention, protection of victims and sanctioning perpetrators. The aim is also to point out the difference between freedom of expression as a fundamental human right and hate speech.
The development of the Manual was followed by the opinion poll, prepared by Zlatiborka Popov-Momčinović, PhD, which included representatives of civil servants from different levels of government in BiH: state, entity, cantonal and local, including Brčko District.
The analysis of this poll, which is a part of the manual, provided an insight into the perception, level of knowledge and experience of civil servants in BiH in connection to the hate speech phenomenon. General conclusions of the Analysis indicate that civil servants are aware that hate speech is a negative phenomenon, they believe that it is very present in BiH, and that it should be better regulated. Also, having in mind that civil servants only partially and / or insufficiently know / recognise hate speech, it was emphasised the need for their education in order to prevent and combat hate speech.
This manual is developed withing the action "Promotion of diversity an equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina“ within the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.
