A delegation of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) visited Bosnia and Herzegovina from 22 to 26 May 2023 as the first step in the preparation of a monitoring report. During the visit, ECRI’s delegation gathered information on effective equality and access to rights; hate speech and hate motivated violence; and integration and inclusion.

The delegation held meetings with representatives of the national government, as well as with the authorities of the two entities (the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska), the Brčko District, Cantons of the Federation, and the Institution of the Human Rights Ombudsman. The ECRI delegation also met international organisations and institutions, members of civil society groups and media professionals. In addition, the delegation travelled to Srebrenica, where it met with representatives of the local authorities and visited the Memorial Center in Potočari.

Following this visit, ECRI will adopt a report in which it will make a new set of recommendations on measures to be taken by the authorities to address racism and intolerance in the country. The implementation of two priority recommendations will be reviewed in two years’ time after the publication of the report as part of ECRI’s interim follow-up procedure.

In the framework of these two priority recommendations, the authorities should end all forms of discrimination in education, including the segregation in “two schools under one roof” that exist in some Cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and non-inclusive school environments in the Republika Srpska; and the authorities should take action in order to be in compliance with the 2009 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Sejdić and Finci case.

For more information on previous ECRI reports on Bosnia and Herzegovina, please visit ECRI’s country monitoring page.