The Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Banja Luka once again calls on the representatives of the National Assembly of the RS to withdraw the draft amendments to the Criminal Code of the RS from the agenda of tomorrow’s 11th regular session of the Parliament of RS.
We remind you that the proposed changes, which remove the term “gender identity” from the list of explicitly protected characteristics, represent a serious blow to the legal protection of vulnerable groups!
This opinion is also shared by the UN experts (Independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders) who sent an Open Letter to the Government of the RS in which, among other things, they state: “Both from a procedural and material point of view, it is very worrying to propose an amendment to the fundamental criminal code with the clearly regressive aim of reducing the scope of protection it provides. This implies that the authorities would no longer provide protection against crimes motivated by prejudice based on gender identity, which would introduce de jure discrimination into the law”.
You can read the complete Open Letter at this link: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/sexualorientation/OL-BiH-1-2024-BHS.pdf
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