Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer persons are often exposed to physical, verbal or psychological violence, and research shows that more than 85% of such cases are never reported to the police. The reasons that they most commonly suggest are fear or mistrust in institutions due to an inadequate and inappropriate treatment.
On the other hand, the safety and protection of LGBTI human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina demands a quick, professional and adequate reaction of police officers, as well as knowledge on how to fight hate crimes. Better trained and sensitised police officers who know how to fight hate crime will lead to cases of hate speech and hate crimes being reported and solved more often, the cases that LGBTI persons face daily.
One of the 14 key priorities for Bosnia and Herzegovina to fulfil in pre-accession process to the European Union is a priority number 13, which underlines the need for protection and inclusion of vulnerable groups, LGBTI persons in particular, as the previous assessment concluded that these processes are not on a satisfactory level. Through Recommendation of Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers to member states on measures to combat discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity, the member states were provided with guidelines and were advised to operatively act with a goal of eliminating all forms of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.
RS Ministry of Interior Women Network – RS WPON, in collaboration with European Union and Council of Europe, is working on strengthening the capacities of police officers from the Republic of Srpska. In a series of one-day trainings held in July and September, they learned about how to act with regards to cases of hate crime and hate speech directed at LGBTI persons. Through this education, they worked on the sensitisation of police officers on ways of treating LGBTI persons, in accordance with normative frameworks and legal procedures and practice of police officers from the Republic of Srpska Ministry of the Interior.
One of the police officers claimed that this was the first training they had on such a topic and that it helped her better understand the position that LGBTI persons are in. "The topic is, first and foremost, very interesting and definitely necessary nowadays. The lectures were not only informative and interesting, but I believe that they offered a new perspective and guidelines to my colleagues and I on how to treat and work with LGBTI persons. I believe that it is necessary to have further education on this and similar topics", the police officer added.
More than 60 police officers from three different regions in Republic of Srpska underwent this training, while representatives from The Office of the Minister of Interior of RS, Gender Center of RS, The University Clinical Centre in Banja Luka and The Ministry of the Interior Police Training Administration were included in the training as lecturers.
During the training, police officers had an opportunity to learn more about the terminology tied to sexual orientation and gender identity, but also to work on breaking down prejudice and stereotypes directed at LGBTI persons. More specifically, they learned about the crime motivated by prejudice on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and the guidelines on a more sensitised approach and treatment of victims of such crimes.
“I believe that hate crimes directed at this community are often committed in our midst, but because of living in a small community and, as we also heard because of fear, most will decide not to report these cases of violence. I wish to share what I learned today with my colleagues and work together with them on repressing prejudice and stereotypes directed at LGBTI persons”, claimed one of the police officers who went through this one-day training.
This is only one of the activities that RS MoI Women Network – RS WPON are realising with the goals of education and promotion of equality of approach and police action towards different marginalised groups, as well as strengthening the practical work capacities in prevention of violence and hate crime.
This training was organised as a part of the action "Promotion of diversity and equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina“ in collaboration with RS MoI Women Network – RS WPON and as a part of joint initiative of the European Union and Council of Europe “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.
