Representatives of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly BL and the Initiative “Women Citizens for Constitutional Reform” held a meeting with officials of the Brčko District on June 27, 2025, at which three initiatives were discussed: the introduction of gender-sensitive language in the Brčko District Statute, the criminalization of sexual extortion as a separate criminal offense, and the proposal for the Law on Freedom of Access to Information, which is currently in procedure.
“When it comes to gender-responsive language, the Ombudsmen of BiH issued two recommendations on this subject in 2024 and 2025, i.e. they determined discrimination against women based on the failure to recognize the feminine grammatical gender in the Constitution of the Federation of BiH and the Constitution of BiH. In both cases, the Ombudsmen determined that the use of one grammatical gender in the translated text of the Constitution of BiH as a generic term can be viewed in the context of what is called linguistic or grammatical gender bias, i.e. gender discrimination”, emphasized Filip Novaković, a member of the Initiative “Women Citizens for Constitutional Reform” and coordinator of the legal team of the Human Rights House Banja Luka.
We also discussed ways to introduce gender-responsive language and agreed that the most appropriate solution for the Statute of the Brčko District at this time is to add a neutral clause to this document that states that “all expressions used in one generic gender also refer to the other grammatical gender, without discrimination”.
“Today’s meeting was very constructive and this proposal will be forwarded to all relevant political entities in the Brčko District for further consideration and action. I think that all stakeholders in the Brčko District will support such changes. I believe that it is very important that this is adopted and that this will be a step ahead of everyone else in this regard”, said Damir Bulčević, President of the Brčko District Assembly.
As for the Law on Freedom of Access to Information, the current proposal does not provide for the possibility of appeal, which is contrary to international standards and constitutional guarantees. The Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly’s proposal is for the Brčko District to introduce an independent institution of a Commissioner for Free Access to Information. In this way, the Brčko District would have the most modern solution compared to the existing framework in the state.
We also received support for this initiative from Milijana Simić, Head of the Department for Professional and Administrative Affairs, and Ina Pamukčić, President of the Commission for Gender Equality and Member of the Brčko District Assembly.
Photos taken from: www.radiobrcko.ba
Photos by: Mirsad Zahirović
