Civil servants, representatives of civil society and media in Brčko District strengthened their understanding of how to recognise and address hate speech during a two-day training workshop on 19-20 February 2026 in Teslić.

Organised by the Government of Brčko District with the support of the European Union and the Council of Europe, the event focused on improving institutional responses, clarifying legal thresholds and promoting preventive measures, including the proactive use of codes of conduct within the public administration.

This initiative is in line with the situational analysis and road map in Bosnia and Herzegovina outlining the activities institutions should implement to challenge the paradigm of impunity when it comes to hate speech and bias. This document was adopted by the BiH Council of Ministers on 27 November 2023, at the initiative of the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Participants in Teslić focused on how to distinguish between hate speech and freedom of speech, and to identify when hate speech should be treated under criminal or civil law, or as an offensive or harmful expression. The proactive use of codes of conduct was highlighted as a preventive measure to combat hate speech among civil servants.

Another important topic of discussion was the set of protective mechanisms, presented by the two Ombudspersons, Dr Jasminka Dzumhur and Dr Nevenko Vranješ, and Amina Maličbegović-Kamenica of the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees.

This training workshop was organised with the support of the action "Towards an equal, inclusive and tolerant Bosnia and Herzegovina", which is implemented under the joint programme of the European Union and the Council of Europe "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye".