From segregation in schools and crumbling social benefits to toxic air over industrial cities, human rights in BiH are hanging by a thread of political will. Until the Constitution recognizes gender equality, the right to a healthy environment and inclusive education, inequality will remain the systemic norm.
The current Constitution is also largely to blame for discrimination and inequality. “If we are not in the Constitution – we are not in the state”.
First image: Parents in silence of the protest
“We are not asking for petty. We just want to be recognized”, said Bobana Miljević as she held her son Ognjen’s hand at a recent protest on Krajina Square in Banja Luka.
Her son is a child with developmental disabilities, and due to the provisions of the Child Protection Act of RS, Bobana lost her right to benefits because Ognjen now goes to school.
“Does this mean that a child with a disability cannot have the right to education and parental care at the same time?” she asked, outraged by the institutions that remain silent.
The rights of parents of children with developmental disabilities are not nearly the same in all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is why parents are forced, like Bobana, to fight against provisions that, as they say, discriminate against them.
The current Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina is also largely to blame for discrimination and inequality, which does not recognize the right to special protection of persons with disabilities, nor the right of their families to support. Not even as a minimum.
That is why laws that exclude them are passed without obstacles. That is why rights are extinguished by legal amendments – without constitutional protection to prevent them.
This example is not the only one.
In March 2023, in this same Banja Luka, LGBTQ+ community activists tried to hold a public walk and discussion as part of the planned event “BH Pride Parade – Banja Luka 2023”.
Instead of security and the constitutional right to freedom of expression, they were met with fists. Members of right-wing groups, without any reaction from the police, beat up the organizers and guests. Among them were journalists.
Even then, the Constitution had nothing to say. Because the right to sexual orientation and gender identity is not explicitly protected in the constitutional text.
The Constitution of BiH – a document of peace, not human rights
“Rights that are not written down – do not apply. People who are not named – do not exist. And a society that accepts this – does not progress”, is one of the key sentences from the Platform of Women’s Priorities for Constitutional Reform.
The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as Annex IV of the Dayton Peace Agreement, was written with the aim of stopping the war. And it succeeded. But what it failed to do and what it still fails to do today is to guarantee rights to all people in the country.
Although the highest legal act in BiH relies on the European Convention on Human Rights, the text itself does not even recognize the basic needs of modern society – gender equality, the right to water, housing, health or equal education.
This is why in practice it happens that maternity benefits vary depending on the city, entity or canton, that people with disabilities do not have constitutionally recognized special protection, that citizens are exposed to air and water pollution without the right to seek legal protection, and that children do not have an equal right to education.
In many rural areas, more than 30% of households still do not have stable access to drinking water, while public kitchens are a daily necessity for almost 20,000 people in the country.
Explicit constitutional guarantees of equal rights for women and men, the right to privacy and data protection in the digital age, as well as the right to freedom of expression and assembly without political obstruction are also missing.
The Constitution of BiH does not contain provisions that would ensure universal access to health and social protection, nor does it recognize individuals who declare themselves as “Others” or who live outside entity borders as equal in the political system.
That is why the Initiative “Women Citizens for Constitutional Reform” is leading a campaign demanding a clear expansion of the constitutional catalogue of rights.
Based on years of research and policy briefs, this Initiative proposes concrete amendments that would bring the Constitution of BiH closer to modern human rights standards and harmonize it with international conventions that BiH already recognizes, but has not yet implemented through the highest legal act.
Some of these rights exist in laws, and some are mentioned in conventions that BiH recognizes.
But if they are not in the Constitution, they are subject to abolition. They are not the foundation, but depend on political will.
There are more women than men in BiH, but women are not in the Constitution
Women make up more than 50 percent of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
They outnumber men, but if we judge by the Constitution of BiH, they are invisible and unprotected in relation to the male gender.
The Constitution of BiH, for example, does not use language that recognizes women. Terms in the Constitution are used exclusively in the masculine gender.
The recommendation of the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman of BiH from April 2025 clearly states that the gender-neutral language in the Constitution of the Federation of BiH is discriminatory because it excludes women from the symbolic and legal space of the highest legal act.
Discrimination against women in the Constitution does not stop at language. There is no explicit constitutional recognition of gender equality, nor a guarantee of women’s rights to maternity protection, to the prohibition of discrimination in employment, to special protection for pregnant women and single mothers.
The policy briefs of the Platform of Women’s Priorities for Constitutional Reform emphasize that women in BiH suffer institutional discrimination due to the lack of gender-sensitive provisions in the Constitution.
They point out that “the Constitution of BiH does not contain any formulation that would oblige the state to take proactive measures in the field of gender equality, nor does it recognize the socioeconomic position of women in a transitional society”.
In response to this situation, the Platform proposes clear amendments that would ensure:
- Gender equality in the language of the Constitution;
- Women’s right to equal access to employment and equality in wages;
- A constitutional guarantee of special protection for pregnant women, mothers and single parents;
- Gender-sensitive social protection policies.
Gender discrimination in BiH is not limited to social policies. The Constitution does not recognize gender identity, nor does it oblige the authorities to take active measures for equality.
According to the Ombudsman’s recommendation from 2025, this type of institutional silence represents the permanent exclusion of women from constitutional language.
The Law on Gender Equality exists, but it does not have constitutional support, so it is easy to ignore it in practice.
While other countries, such as Slovenia, Portugal or Germany, explicitly guarantee equality and gender protection in their constitutions, Bosnia and Herzegovina remains without a single sentence that would clearly recognize women as constitutional subjects.
Reproductive rights and constitutional silence
“He asked me if I was planning to give birth. When I said that I was planning to, he said that he did not want to accept me because he wanted a woman in that workplace who ‘does not have these problems’,” said Nikolina M. from Banja Luka, citing just one of the interviews for a job in a boutique that she went through with stress.
She points out that it is a “shock” for her that she is perceived practically “as part of the inventory” in a boutique that should “just listen, smile and sell clothes”.
She recalled how another employer told her that if she was hired and had a child, she “should know that she could not always take sick leave if the child got sick”.
“He just does not care, imagine that! I asked him if he had children, what if they got sick, did he take them to the doctor? He did not answer, he just said that he ‘that is how things work’,” the young woman recalled.
There is no provision in the Constitution of BiH that recognizes a woman’s right to freely decide about her body, access to contraception, or abortion.
Policy Brief No. 2, which addresses this topic, proposes that the following wording be included in the Constitution: “Women and men have the right to decide about their reproductive rights and reproductive health, without discrimination, coercion, or violence”.
This formulation is based on international standards, including the Beijing Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
In practice, women in BiH also face numerous obstacles when it comes to accessing reproductive health services.
In many rural areas, there are no gynecological clinics, and education on sexual health is almost non-existent.
“I have not been to a gynecologist for a full eight years since I gave birth. And if there was a doctor, I would have certainly gone there sometime”.
This is what Jasminka from the Potočari area in Srebrenica recently told Radio Free Europe (RFE).
She is just one of several thousand women in this town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina who, in order to reach the first gynecologist, have to go to Bratunac, 10 kilometers away, or Zvornik, 50 kilometers away.
Jasminka says she got married at 18, gave birth to a baby in Zvornik, and has not visited a gynecologist since.
In addition, women in different parts of BiH have different maternity rights.
Benefits range from 150 to 1,000 BAM, depending on which part of the country the mothers live in.
Unemployed, single mothers, and women in rural areas are often left without any protection.
In addition to health, the right to abortion, although legally permitted up to the tenth week of pregnancy, is often burdened by moral and institutional barriers.
Women are often judged, directed towards “alternatives” without informed consent, or subjected to additional procedures not prescribed by law.
Without a constitutional guarantee, these rights remain fragile and easily contested.
Education for all – except for some
In Jajce, students A. and T. go to the same school building – but not to the same school. One learns in Bosnian, the other in Croatian. They do not share classrooms or classes, and they also learn from different textbooks.
However, in the schoolyard, they say they play together. The parent of one of the two students says that the children often ask them why they are separated, but that it is “hard to explain” to the children.
Two schools under one roof – a term that has become a symbol of institutional segregation in education in BiH, established at the end of the war as a “temporary measure” in places of war conflict between Croats and Bosniaks.
The practice of “two schools under one roof” is present in at least 50 schools across the Bosnian entity Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Children are separated based on ethnicity, from preschool age.
Those who are neither Bosniaks nor Croats must “fit in” to one of the schools.
Neither court rulings on the discriminatory nature of such schools, nor calls from the European Union have helped to abolish segregation.
However, the Constitution of BiH does not mention this phenomenon. The Constitution of BiH provides for the right to education, but does not recognize the right to inclusive, equal and non-discriminatory education. It does not even recognize the linguistic rights of children.
The Constitution does not oblige the state to make education strictly accessible to all children – regardless of their ethnicity, address or economic status.
The Roma, who are the most discriminated minority group in the country, suffer particularly. According to UNICEF, less than 25% of Roma children complete primary school. Children live on the margins of the education system, often without transportation, textbooks, or support.
Roma children are still often subject to segregation in educational institutions, where they are placed in special classes or schools for children with special needs, although there is no professional basis for this. Without a constitutional ban on such practices – anything remains possible.
“The Constitution of BiH does not contain an explicit guarantee of the right to education, nor the principles of accessibility, equality and the prohibition of segregation. This gap allows laws and practices to be uneven, discriminatory and selective” – states the Policy Briefs of the Platform of Women’s Priorities.
The fight for clean air, drinking water and protected nature
Dug-up land, polluted water, destroyed properties, sulfur that can be felt for kilometers. This is the picture of the operation of coal mines opened in the vicinity of Prijedor, under, to put it mildly, suspicious circumstances.
Every week, the people of Prijedor, as well as the residents of the settlements of Bukova Kosa and Bistrica, persistently protest, demanding that some of the most beautiful villages in the area be protected, and that mining and pollution be stopped.
Locals say their water is no longer drinkable, that everything is covered in dust from machines and trucks, and that the air no longer smells like forest but like sulfur. They wonder why the state does not provide them with protection, and the answer is – because the Constitution does not provide for it.
“Do you know that people do not have drinking water? Do you know that bees are dying in these villages? The lives of both plants and animals are in danger”, said those gathered at one of the protests in Prijedor.
The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina does not contain an explicit provision guaranteeing the right to a healthy environment. Although BiH is a signatory to conventions that mandate environmental protection as a human right, this provision has never been translated into the text of the Constitution.
According to the World Health Organization, BiH is among the five most polluted countries in Europe. Thermal power plants in BiH may be the biggest European polluters.
In cities such as Tuzla, Zenica and Sarajevo, air pollution exceeds permissible limits for more than 100 days a year.
The average annual concentration of hazardous particles often reaches values that are four to five times higher than the recommended limits.
The Constitution of Slovenia, declared the cleanest country in Europe, states in Article 72 that “everyone has the right to a healthy environment”.
The Constitution of Norway also recognizes the environment as an intergenerational right. In BiH, the environment is a secondary issue, stuck between the nexus of politics, business and corruption.
The right to housing, water and food – a privilege, not a right
The Constitution of BiH does not guarantee the rights of citizens, men and women, to food, water and housing, in a country where about 700,000 people are on the verge of poverty.
Every sixth citizen goes to bed hungry. At the same time, 140,000 tons of food are thrown away annually.
For example, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa guarantees the right to housing and protection from eviction. The Constitution of Brazil guarantees the right to food, and the Constitution of Portugal guarantees the right to a home. The Constitution of BiH is silent.
In the digital age, BiH does not even have a constitutional provision on the protection of personal data.
The Constitution does not guarantee the protection of privacy or digital security. Children, patients, citizens – all are exposed to potential abuses without the highest legal protection.
What do citizens think about the Constitution of BiH?
More than 70 percent of citizens believe that the Constitution of BiH should be changed, according to perhaps the only comprehensive public opinion survey on the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, conducted in 2022 by the Initiative “Women Citizens for Constitutional Reform”.
The survey included citizens from all parts of BiH, of different ethnicities, ages and socioeconomic status.
Almost 60 percent of those surveyed believe that the Constitution of BiH does not protect them enough, and only 18% believe that the current system treats all citizens equally.
The most common reasons cited by participants for dissatisfaction were inequality of rights depending on ethnicity, discrimination based on residence, a vague and dysfunctional political structure, and the absence of social and economic rights in the text of the Constitution.
The report concludes that “citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina feel that the Constitution is not theirs because it does not protect them in everyday situations – from the right to education and work, to access to health and social services”.
And this research confirms what everyday life shows, that changing the Constitution is not only a political, but a deeply human issue.
That is why this campaign is not about political will.
It is about recognizing every person as equal, as a citizen protected by the human rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
Analysis created in cooperation with the Initiative “Women Citizens for Constitutional Reform”.
Text taken from: www. gerila.info
