The Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the Law on the Protection of the Rights of Members of National Minorities in 2003. The law states that BiH will protect the position, equality and rights of 17 national minorities present in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH): Albanians, Montenegrins, Czechs, Italians, Jews, Hungarians, Macedonians, Germans, Poles, Roma, Romanians, Russians, Ruthenians, Slovaks, Slovenians, Turks and Ukrainians.
The law gives these minorities the right to the protection of their cultural, religious, educational, social, economic and political freedoms, needs and identity.
The Mission of OSCE in Bosnia and Herzegovina plays very important role in protection of minorities, in a way that continue to advocate and support the Law on the Protection of the Rights of Members of National Minorities in the RS and FBiH and the establishment and development of national minority councils at the state and entity levels. The Mission places special emphasis on the status of the Roma, as the largest and most marginalized national minority group in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In 2004, Action Plan on the educational needs of Roma and members of other national minorities in BiH, supported and created by Mission, was signed by all Ministers of education. Revised action plan of Bosnia and Herzegovina on education needs of the Roma was finalized in 2010, and adopted by by the BiH Council of Ministers.
BiH joined the Roma Decade 2005-2015 in September 2008, with the aim to ensure full and effective participation of Roma in state bodies and structures, solve problems in the area of housing, health care, employment and education, as well as the fight against discrimination and prejudice according to the Roma.
More about AHEAD project:
AHEAD project aims to promote between youngsters non–discrimination and to combat racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance against Roma and other Ethnic minorities (mostly migrants). Partners jointly work on innovative good practice approaches, human rights-based narratives, training, official regular meetings, and European awareness raising campaigns. The project promotes inclusion, tolerance, mutual and multicultural understanding, and fight Roma, ethnic minorities, and migrants in Europe through an innovative approach that combines research, training (national and international) on antidiscrimination and on hate speech, round tables, seminars, the exchange of good practices, meetings between different representatives, stakeholders, CSOs, and youth associations, and a massive dissemination campaign.
The project aims to contribute to strengthening the capacity building of young victims (part of minorities) and the protection of youngsters belonging to minorities by supporting them in capacity building and structuring new mechanisms in public consultations in partner’s country (replicable all over Europe) on the issue of nondiscrimination and fighting every form of hate speech against ethnic minorities, Roma and migrants.
AHEAD’s aim is to tackle hate speech (also online) and to combat discriminations that target minorities in 5 areas of civil rights: education, labor, housing, health, goods and services, through specific training offered to 200 participants and through an new approach that combines quantitative research, public meetings with stakeholders, and awareness raising campaign. After providing expertise, building competences, advocating and raising awareness among youth people, partners will support the mobilization of young victims and will focus on Capacity building actions for youth, in order to involve Youngsters in decision making and into new structured automatic mechanisms to empower their active participation on hate speech and antidiscrimination.