NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS' REPORT ON THE ...icva-bh.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/... · non-governmental organizations' report on the implementation of the european

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS' REPORT

ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE

EUROPEAN SOCIAL CHARTER

IN

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

June 2007

ICVA BiH

Fra Anđela Zvizdovića 1/11

71000 Sarajevo

Phone: + 387 33 210 201

Fax: + 387 33 668 297

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.icva-bh.org

mailto:[email protected]

NGO Report on the implementation of the European Social Charter in BiH, ICVA BiH, June 2007

1

Purpose and Goals of the Report by Non-Governmental Organizations

Bosnia and Herzegovina was accepted to the Council of Europe on April 24th

2002. This has

meant a progress in development of democracy and ensuring the rule of law, although the

acceptance was accompanied with post-accession requirements on which the country is still

working.

BiH signed to the European Social Charter in May 2004, and although the document had not been

ratified yet, the Constitution of the Federation of BiH gave it the power of constitutional

provisions, according to which implementation of international documents prevails over national

legislation. The process of ratification by the state is currently ongoing and is expected to be

completed in near future.

The mere signing of the Charter and its expected ratification show the BiH’s good will to

implement international standards in social protection of population. However, very little has

been the progress actually made in BiH in terms of social care of population and in

implementation of international standards in legislation and practice.

The non-governmental organizations that are active in advocating implementation of

international standards in social protection in BiH, as well as the ratification of the European

Social Charter, offer in this report an overview of the level of implementation and compliance

with the rights and liabilities provided for in the European Social Charter, they point at the

problems in use of the right to social security and protection in BiH and they emphasize the

necessity of as soon as possible ratification and implementation of the provisions of the European

Social Charter.

This Report was made by a group of 20 non-governmental organizations and representatives of

the Trade Unions from Bosnia and Herzegovina, with support and coordination provided by the

ICVA. The positions stated in the Report represent a synthesis of analysis of legislative

framework and situation “on the ground”, as well as the opinions of all non-governmental

organization taking part in the process. Unfortunately, many important data for various areas are

lacking because they simply do not exist, as the official statistics of the country does not keep

track of them.

The following non-governmental organizations took part in drafting this report:

Udruženje slijepih građana Kantona Sarajevo; Zemlja djece, Tuzla; Informativni centar Lotos,

Tuzla; Koodinacioni odbor invalidskih organizacija Republike Srpske, Banja Luka; Žena BiH,

Mostar; Savez paraplegičara i oboljelih od dječije paralize FBiH, Sarajevo; Open Society Fund

BiH; Interaktivne otvorene škole, Tuzla; Sumero, Sarajevo; Vive žene, Tuzla; Oaza, Sarajevo;

Naša djeca, Zenica; Prijateljice, Tuzla; Svjetlo, Sarajevo; Fenix, Tuzla; Altruist Mostar;

Osmijeh, Gračanica; Mozaik Gračanica; Trade union of workers in trade industry FBiH; CRS

BiH; Global Rights in BiH; ICVA BiH .


2

Introduction

The BiH war, which lasted almost four years, has changed the social and economic picture of the

country. Of the 4.4 million pre-war population, 250,000 people, mostly men, were killed or

believed missing. Around 28% of population has been made to leave their homes and are now

considered internally displaced, or refugees in other countries. Several generations have lost

years of education, and tens of thousands people have become disabled, with significant degree

of disability. There are many single-parent families, and many orphans. The war had destroyed a

significant part of infrastructure and ruined the economy. Industrial production fell to only 10%

of its pre-war level.1

Constitutional setup2

The Constitution of BiH (Article 1.2) states that BiH is a democratic country that functions under

the rule of law and free and democratic elections. The Constitution includes as its integral part

the European Convention on Human Rights. Rule of law has been gradually re-established after

the 1992-1995 war. The country is generally at peace, freedom of expression and peaceful

gathering is respected. Freedom of movement is guaranteed, and the property rights are

respected in most cases.

Constitutional basis for establishment of democracy and rule of law is found in the Annex 4 of

the General Framework Agreement on Peace in BiH, which was agreed in Dayton in December

1995. The BiH Constitution produced a very much decentralized country, which was tailored to

meet diverging interests of the peoples in BiH. In practice, this means that many governments

and related administrations were established.

BiH is a parliamentary democracy. There is a parliament at the state level, at the level of two

entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska, and in the Brčko

District, and there are also parliaments at the level of cantons.

Formally, BiH citizens enjoy all human rights and freedoms provided for in the European

Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its Protocols.

According to the Constitution of BiH (Article II.2), these instruments are directly applied in BiH,

overweighing any other laws, although, generally speaking, the level of implementation of human

rights in BiH i still at a very low level. In spite of provisions that guarantee respect to human

rights in accordance with international instruments, the national legislation often approaches the

human rights in a discriminatory manner, leaving the individual rights behind the collective

rights. The Law guarantees equal treatment of men and women. In addition, BiH has ratified a

host of international conventions on human rights (although its reports to the international

supervisory bodies have not been submitted regularly).

1 Mid-term Development Strategy of BiH, 2003, page 3

2 European Commission Report to the Council on readiness of Bosnia and Herzegovina to begin

negotiations on the Stabilization and Accession Agreement with the European Union, November 2003


3

Socio-economic context

Social and economic rights of the BiH citizens remain restricted due to poor economy.

Officially, 40% of population is unemployed (The BiH population is estimated at around

3,800,000 people, because official data are lacking since the most recent census was conducted in

1991. Around 20% of population lives under the poverty line, and 30% more just above it. This

partly reflects the inability of (true, undeveloped) system of social security to meet the needs of

the economically most vulnerable categories. The right to become member in independent trade

unions is respected, but the trade unions were also weakened by war, ethnic divisions, lack of

necessary expertise in the area of international standards of human rights, and high level of

unemployment. Many strikes are being organized, mostly because of unpaid salaries or pensions,

but these rarely produce any substantive effects. Health sector in both entities is weak and

inadequately financed. Many people are not covered by health insurance, and those who are,

often find their coverage unreliable. Many rural areas lack effective medical care. In the

Federation BiH, there are some parallel health systems. Social policy and social assistance are

fragmented and limited in both entities due to insufficient funding3.

When formulating a comprehensive mid-term and long-term economic strategy, BiH undertook

some steps through definition of political priorities in the Mid-Term Development Strategy Paper

for the period 2003-2007, which had not produced significant practical effects so far. Officially,

the successfulness of the Strategy implementation is estimated at around 50%, while informal

estimates say that the effects are even lower than that.

Grey economy had the role of social protection network for otherwise unprotected non-

functioning economy. It is believed that the grey economy amounts to 40% of total economic

activity in BiH, and it hampers formulation of effective action policy and jeopardizes regional

and international economic cooperation.

On the other hand, one should not neglect chronicle and permanent weakness of the BiH

statistics.

Based on the number of people registered with the unemployment office, one may conclude that

the unemployment rate in BiH is around 40%. However, the data from the Living Standard

Survey speak about much lower unemployment rate, and they suggest that the level of

unemployment is the highest among the young people. Reason for such big difference in numbers

probably lay in the fact that there are many people working in the “grey” economy, and they are

not registered as employed. The conditions of work are under responsibility of the entity

legislation, but the effects of the existing norms is limited due to economic weaknesses and

activities that are mostly taking place in informal or unregulated sectors. In practice,

employment standards in BiH deviate significantly from the standards in EU.

3 European Commission Report to the Council on readiness of Bosnia and Herzegovina to begin

negotiations on the Stabilization and Accession Agreement with the European Union, November 2003


4

Education

During the school year 2000/2001, 97% of children of appropriate age were enrolled in primary

school, but only 56% of children went on to secondary school. The war that had brought about

large scale destruction of infrastructure and made the whole economy collapse also had negative

influence on the general quality of education. The World Bank estimates suggest that the

spending on primary education amounts to 2.7% and on secondary education 1.4% of the gross

domestic products. The numbers seem to suggest that almost 90% of the education budget in

FBiH goes to salaries to teachers, leaving next to nothing for investments in infrastructure,

training, etc. Unsatisfactory financing means low social status for the teachers, and general

dissatisfaction with the education sector. This is further exaggerated by ethnic divisions (some

schools provided for segregation of teaching under the same roof), outdated teaching methods

and textbooks and textbooks containing ethnically insulting texts. In addition, it is well known

that the vocational training does not correspond to the needs of the labor market. Due to war and

economic weakness, the research, technology and development capacities in BiH have become

very limited in BiH. Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently the only country in the Europe that had

not yet adopted a law on higher education - Bologna, and because of that, the necessary reforms

of this sector had not been developed, all this affecting mostly the young people.

With 13 ministries of education, the education system in BiH is still very much fragmented,

inefficient and sensitive to political influences. The education responsibilities in BiH are fully

decentralized and transferred to the levels of cantons, entities and District Brcko. Education

system is made of 12 closed administrative units and is fragmented and ineffective. The only

instance responsible for education at the state level – the Education Department in the Ministry of

Civil Affairs – has never started any significant initiative in this area. In addition, the education

system in BiH is also divided along ethnic lines, what may be seen also in the fact that there are

three curricula: Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian. Within those curricula, attempts are made to

create national languages and literature and selective national histories for each of the three

constituent peoples in BiH in a way that emphasizes differences and discourages any learning

about others. Cultural heritage and educational rights of minorities are completely neglected, and

education has been turned into one of mechanisms for maintaining divisions in a multi-ethnic

society.


5

European Social Charter (revised)

Article 1 - The right to work

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to work, the Parties undertake:

1. to accept as one of their primary aims and responsibilities the achievement and maintenance

of as high and stable a level of employment as possible, with a view to the attainment of full

employment;

2. to protect effectively the right of the worker to earn his living in an occupation freely entered

upon;

3. to establish or maintain free employment services for all workers;

4. to provide or promote appropriate vocational guidance, training and rehabilitation.

Economic and social indicators clearly show that of 3,850,000 residents of BiH (excluding

refugees and displaced persons) who presently live in the country according to the Statistics

Agency, only every eighth have permanent jobs and a chance to earn income, in case that the

commercial entities that employ them operate positively or have other sources of income.

Official unemployment rate has exceeded 50% in some cantons, such as, for instance, Bosansko-

Podrinjski, Unsko-Sanski and Zenicko-Dobojski, thus becoming the highest in Europe. Average

monthly demand for labor in entity employment institutes does not exceed two thousands. At the

average, 350 unemployed people compete for one post, while this ratio reaches the level of 1:500

among the qualified workers and people with secondary education.

A research conducted in 2006 using the ILO methodology showed that the percentage of

unemployed people in BiH is 31.1% (around 370,000 unemployed people).4 The Trade Unions at

the same time estimate that only in FBiH, there are 360,000 unregistered workers.

Education system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the vocational education and training, is

greatly lacking in harmony with the labor market. The reason for this are the weaknesses of the

education system that is in itself non-harmonized and fragmented.

The state has not developed a life long education system and it does not offer legal opportunities

for lasting education, additional training or retraining – only occasionally, some ad-hoc retraining

programs are organized (mostly by NGOs, using donor money, and in cooperation with the

Employment Offices/Institutes) for specific lacking professions and for a limited period of time.

The problem with the retraining and additional training by the NGOs, although they provide

4 Human Development Report 2007, UNDP


6

support to the education system, is often related to verification of the knowledge acquired

through such programs, because there are no standing mechanisms within the national

educational structure that would verify educational curricula proposed or implemented by the

NGOs.

Article 2 - The right to just conditions of work

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to just conditions of work, the Parties

undertake:

1. to provide for reasonable daily and weekly working hours, the working week to be

progressively reduced to the extent that the increase of productivity and other relevant factors

permit;

2. to provide for public holidays with pay;

3. to provide for a minimum of four weeks' annual holiday with pay;

In terms of the right to reasonable restriction of working hours and occasional paid leaves, as well

as the remunerations for public holidays, one may say that there are no official records in BiH

that might tell us whether those rights are respected or violated. However, according to the

information provided by the NGOs and Trade Unions, one may say with confidence that workers,

again particularly in private companies, are left at the mercy of their employers. Their working

hours exclusively depend on interests of the employers, as does their right to paid leave.

Informal indicators show that many workers are not entitled to paid leave, and that very often

they work over weekends and during official national holidays without any remuneration. Due to

difficult economic situation in the country, they are finding themselves blackmailed by the

employer to either accept such conditions, or loose their jobs. This is the very reason why the

workers simply put up with this. However, what worries is that the responsible government

agencies are doing nothing to change the situation and to establish a regular system of

government controls through responsible national inspections, both in public and in private

companies.


7

Article 3 - The right to safe and healthy working conditions

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to safe and healthy working conditions,

the Parties undertake, in consultation with employers' and workers' organisations:

1. to formulate, implement and periodically review a coherent national policy on occupational

safety, occupational health and the working environment. The primary aim of this policy shall

be to improve occupational safety and health and to prevent accidents and injury to health

arising out of, linked with or occurring in the course of work, particularly by minimising the

causes of hazards inherent in the working environment;

2. to issue safety and health regulations;

3. to provide for the enforcement of such regulations by measures of supervision;

4. to promote the progressive development of occupational health services for all workers with

essentially preventive and advisory functions.

BiH does not have a national Law on Protection at Work. The Republika Srpska does have a

Law on Protection at Work from 1997, while the District Brcko adopted their Law in 2002, but

without any implementing regulations and rulebooks for specific areas of protection or activity.

In the Federation BiH, still in force is the Law on Protection at Work from the former SRBiH

from 1990, and the Law on Protection at Work of the former SFRY and thei rimplementing

legislation, except for penalties that had been expressed in YU dinars, which renders them

unimplementable at present days.

According to the Public Health Institute data, 6,642 injuries at work were registered in 2004,

7,514 in 2005. In 2006 again around 7,500 injuries at work were registed, seven of which were

fatal, three in coal mines and four in other activities.

The Institute, as they say in their written response to the inquiry by the Trade Union of BiH on

the nubmer of injuries at work, warns that the data are for the group of population that actively

work, the injuries registered with primary health care in public sector alone. It is highly probable

that the number of injuries is a lot higher because the private sector is not covered in these

records for simple reason that this area has not been properly legislated during the transformation

from the so called “agreed” to market economy.

Unfortunately, in the area of protection at work, the data for the national level are lacking, and

there are only some fragmented entity or cantonal data, which are not comprehensive. So after

the war, as the Health Statistics and Information Service of the Public Health Institute of FBiH

says, a comprehensive statistical research of the injuries at work is not implemented in the old

way, when the former Self-Management Interest Community of Health Insurance of BiH had

very detailed overview of this matter because they were under obligation to reimburse the

compensations for work related injuries. The Law on Health Insurance of FBiH, and the

establishment of the cantonal health insurance fund, this compensation, which had been financed

from health contributions (24 percents of net salary) was abolished and shifted to the institutions


8

and companies (the employers) and insurance companies in case that the employee or the

employeer are insured.

Therefore, something that was mandatory became voluntary, and it had strong consequences on

workers’ health. According to the Cantonal Health Insurance Institute of Sarajevo Canton, the

forms “Report of Accidents at Work” are being collected, but not processed for the above

described reasons, while in most other institutes they are not even collected.

The Public Health Institute of the Federation also warns in their report that the data on work

related injuries are received mostly from public companies and state owned sector that implement

at least some protection at work, while the same is lacking in the private sector due to inexistence

of legislative framework and sanctions for that.

Very ilustrative is an example of accident at work that happened in February 2007 in the “Mittal

Steel” steel mill in Zenica, where a high concentration of gas killed three workers who went into

the base of electric furnace to fix a breakdown without protective gear. If the protection had been

adequately regulated, the concentraiton of harmful fumes would have had been checked before

they entered the room.

Also, due to the above mentioned “voluntarism”, professional diseases are not separately

addressed any more, although they clarly exist in various industries. Their prevention is also

lacking. Some new diseases are emerging, for instance, “computer-related” diseases, or diseases

and injuries that occur after prolonged uneven burdening of some organs (lack of physical

activity), what causes additional fatigue and stress-caused diseases, but these had not been subject

of any resarch in BiH yet.

Implementation of measures of protection at work on daily basis, aimed at prevention of work-

related injuries, professional diseases and other diseases related to work in BiH has not been

prescribed, including the basic rules of using the means of work – tools, machines, equipment

and structures when operating. There is not even a list of institutions to which a company may

turn to in connection with education and making assesments of danger at workplace.

According to still applicable regulations of the former state, which are still in force in BiH, the

employer should not allow independent work of workers who had not received appropriate

training beforehand to avoid threats to their lives and health and lives or health of other people.

According to those regulations, the employer has the sole responsibility for organization and

implementation of protection at work, as the one ordering the work, or a person authorized by

him.

Therefore, each employer must ensure implementation of measures of protection at work.

Depending on the number of workers, the employer must perform this protection themselves, or

transfer it to a contracting organizaiton or individual (up to 50 employees), or in case that the

number of employees exceeds 50, the employer must hire an expert for protection at work. As a

rule, no company employing over 500 workers should go without an organized service of

protection at work. Unfortunately, for as much as the Trade Unions could tell, this is not being

done anywhere because the responsible ministries had failed to adopt necessary regulations that

would be used as a basis for regulating those conditions.


9

The Federation of Independent Trade Unions in BiH, in accordance with strategic directives of

the EU, seeks and demands that the area of protection at work in BiH gets regulated urgently.

Long-term consequences of the existing anarchy may be catastrophic for the health of people and

overall situation in society. Joining the European Union is unthinkable without the safety at work

regulated. By all parameters, this area in BiH is currently the most unregulated in Europe.

Article 4 - The right to a fair remuneration

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to a fair remuneration, the Parties

undertake:

1. to recognise the right of workers to a remuneration such as will give them and their families a

decent standard of living;

2. to recognise the right of workers to an increased rate of remuneration for overtime work,

subject to exceptions in particular cases;

3. to recognise the right of men and women workers to equal pay for work of equal value;

From Article 4.1 follows the obligation of the State to ensure to all workers a remuneration-salary

that is sufficient to meet the basic needs of workers and their families. This is particularly

important from the aspect of comparison of the minimum wage in BiH and minimal amount of

money that is needed to meet basic needs of the workers and their families in BiH.

Unfortunately, there is no system of determining minimum salaries in BiH in a way that would

link them to the minimal amount required for mere survival. That is why we see a discrepancy

between the two amounts, and the amount of the minimum salary does not correspond with the

real needs. As a result, somebody receiving the minimum salary can not survive in BiH today.

The Government is doing nothing about this, i.e. there is no system of provision of necessary

financial assistance to all those who need it in a systematic way provided for in law, without

discrimination.

Average net salary in January 2007 amounted to:

Federation BIH 325 EUR,

Republika Srpska 304 EUR,

Brčko District 362 EUR.

Average consumer basket, calculated by official institutions for a four-member family, as an

element of minimum costs, amounted in February as follows:

Federation BIH 252 EUR

Republika Srpska 238 EUR

Brčko District 210 EUR.


10

At the same time, the average consumer basked, calculated by the Federation of Independent

Trade Unions is much more expensive because it also includes the costs of housing, transport,

education of children, hygiene, some basic cultural needs, and in February 2007, it amounted to

717 EUR, or more than 2.5 average salaries or five monthly pensions. All this says enough about

alarming economic and social situation in BiH.

The Federation of Trade Unions of BiH have already submitted to the Government of FBiH their

request to increase the price of labor, i.e. harmonize them with the costs of living. The most

recent request was to increase the net hourly wages by 7%, but nothing concrete has been done to

date.

Separate problem are the remunerations to workers employed in private companies. There are no

records on the amounts of minimum salaries in those companies, and the workers are often left

alone at mercy of private employers when it comes to deciding on the amount of salary and the

time of their payment. So it often happens that workers work for months without receiving any

remuneration, and when they finally get it, it is often even lower than the minimum.

Unfortunately, the Government is doing nothing to change such situation and they behave as

though they are not responsible to ensure respect of human rights in the area of economic and

social rights in companies they do not own. Furthermore, the Government itself violates

international standards that stem from international documents it had undertaken and accepted to

respect. In such extremely difficult and hard economic situation in which BiH is found today,

and where having a job is considered to be one’s good fortune, the workers are very reluctant to

complain against such employers because they want to keep their jobs whatever they are, and the

vicious circle is thus closed.

It is very hard to determine whether the remunerations are the same for men and women,

considering that there are no such data in BiH, and nobody keeps such records.

Over the last four years, only around ten women turned to the Association “Zena BiH” for free

legal aid complaining of violations of their right to work. Those are mostly cases involving the

violations of the employment contract by the employer; failure to comply with the Law on Labor,

particularly Article 143; failure to respect the Law on Gender Equality – particularly Article 10 –

access to economic operations.


11

Article 5 - The right to organise

With a view to ensuring or promoting the freedom of workers and employers to form local,

national or international organisations for the protection of their economic and social interests

and to join those organisations, the Parties undertake that national law shall not be such as to

impair, nor shall it be so applied as to impair, this freedom. The extent to which the guarantees

provided for in this article shall apply to the police shall be determined by national laws or

regulations. The principle governing the application to the members of the armed forces of these

guarantees and the extent to which they shall apply to persons in this category shall equally be

determined by national laws or regulations.

Article 6 - The right to bargain collectively

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to bargain collectively, the Parties

undertake:

1. to promote joint consultation between workers and employers;

2. to promote, where necessary and appropriate, machinery for voluntary negotiations between

employers or employers' organisations and workers' organisations, with a view to the

regulation of terms and conditions of employment by means of collective agreements;

3. to promote the establishment and use of appropriate machinery for conciliation and

voluntary arbitration for the settlement of labour disputes and recognise:

4. the right of workers and employers to collective action in cases of conflicts of interest,

including the right to strike, subject to obligations that might arise out of collective

agreements previously entered into.

Organization of trade unions in BiH is yet another cause of friction between the employees and

owners of capital. In many organizing missions, the Trade Union of Workers in Trade Industry

of BiH identified a sort of phenomenon in BiH. Namely, all private owners of trading

companies, large supermarket chains are very open and cooperative in discussions with the trade

union representatives, they even promise to recommend their members to join the trade unions.

But all this support remains only on verbal level, and it lasts only as long as the meeting. After

that follows an intensive campaign in the company, the purpose of which is to spread fear among

the workers of possible negative consequences of their joining the trade unions, which in turn

leads to understandable refusal of the workers to join. Unfortunately, the workers are not willing

to testify about this fearing loss of job as a result of their engagement in trade unions.

Considering that unregistered work flourishes even in officially formal sector, it is clear that the

labor market, which presently counts more than 240,000 unregistered and unprotected workers,

and around 360,000 unemployed, offers ready replacement for any fired worker.

There are over 100,000 companies registered in FBiH, while only 40 inspectors are responsible

for controlling them. The overloaded inspectors have one more problem - the fact that the

workers they are expected to protect do not trust them. Most inspectors work on the basis of


12

anonymous complaints, the workers do not want to report their employer because they would

have to come in the open, and consequently probably loose their job.

To make things even worse, the new Law on Inspections prescribes punishments for the workers

found working unregistered.

At the same time, according to the Labor Law, penalties for the employers for not registering

their workers, which may go up to 5,000 EURO, are most frequently pronounced in their

minimum amount of 500 EURO and sometimes in even symbolic amount of 50 EURO regardless

of the number of unregistered workers, what speaks enough on economic justification of not

registering one’s workers, because the penalty is really nothing compared to the amount of taxes

the employer would have to pay if they registered their workers with pension and health

insurance funds.

Article 8 - The right of employed women to protection of maternity

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right of employed women to the protection of

maternity, the Parties undertake:

1. to provide either by paid leave, by adequate social security benefits or by benefits from public

funds for employed women to take leave before and after childbirth up to a total of at least

fourteen weeks;

2. to consider it as unlawful for an employer to give a woman notice of dismissal during the

period from the time she notifies her employer that she is pregnant until the end of her

maternity leave, or to give her notice of dismissal at such a time that the notice would expire

during such a period;

3. to provide that mothers who are nursing their infants shall be entitled to sufficient time off for

this purpose;

4. to regulate the employment in night work of pregnant women, women who have recently

given birth and women nursing their infants;

5. to prohibit the employment of pregnant women, women who have recently given birth or who

are nursing their infants in underground mining and all other work which is unsuitable by

reason of its dangerous, unhealthy or arduous nature and to take appropriate measures to

protect the employment rights of these women.

Women who have recently given birth and who are unemployed may exercise only a limited

scope of legally prescribed rights through social protection. Although the law says that the right

to this kind of compensation exists for a year after the delivery, this right is only partially

exercised depending on economic power of individual cantons or municipalities. The situation is

similar with other rights in the area of protection to families with children.

So for instance, the “one-time” assistance for equipment for a newborn, assistance for child food

for up to six months of age or additional food for breastfeeding mothers, placing children in pre-


13

primary education institutions with provided meals, ensuring one meal during the school time in

primary schools, are not being implemented and are linked to the economic situation of the

particular canton or municipality.

Therefore, although there is a legislation that is supposed to provide legal protection and ensure

financial assistance to mothers with children, due to the fact that those rights are under cantonal

or municipal responsibility, they are implemented unevenly and there is discrimination according

to the place of living or family status.

Article 9 - The right to vocational guidance

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to vocational guidance, the Parties

undertake to provide or promote, as necessary, a service which will assist all persons, including

the handicapped, to solve problems related to occupational choice and progress, with due regard

to the individual's characteristics and their relation to occupational opportunity: this assistance

should be available free of charge, both to young persons, including schoolchildren, and to

adults.

Article 10 - The right to vocational training

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to vocational training, the Parties

undertake:

1. to provide or promote, as necessary, the technical and vocational training of all persons,

including the handicapped, in consultation with employers' and workers' organisations, and

to grant facilities for access to higher technical and university education, based solely on

individual aptitude;

2. to provide or promote a system of apprenticeship and other systematic arrangements for

training young boys and girls in their various employments;

3. to provide or promote, as necessary:

a. adequate and readily available training facilities for adult workers;

b. special facilities for the retraining of adult workers needed as a result of technological

development or new trends in employment

4. to provide or promote, as necessary, special measures for the retraining and reintegration

of the long-term unemployed;

5. to encourage the full utilisation of the facilities provided by appropriate measures such as:

a. reducing or abolishing any fees or charges;

b. granting financial assistance in appropriate cases;

c. including in the normal working hours time spent on supplementary training taken by

the worker, at the request of his employer, during employment;

d. ensuring, through adequate supervision, in consultation with the employers' and

workers' organisations, the efficiency of apprenticeship and other training

arrangements for young workers, and the adequate protection of young workers generally.


14

Educational system in Bosnia and Herzegovina at all levels, including vocational education and

training, is greatly lacking in harmony with the labor market needs. The reasons for that are the

weaknesses of the education system that is in itself non-harmonized and fragmented. The State

does not possess a developed system for life long learning and it does not offer legal

opportunities for long-term education, additional training or retraining – only occasionally,

some ad-hoc retraining programs are organized (mostly by NGOs, using donor money, and in

cooperation with the Employment Offices/Institutes) for specific lacking professions and for a

limited period of time. The problem with the retraining and additional training by the NGOs,

although they provide support to the education system, often has to do with verification of the

knowledge acquired through such programs, because there are no standing mechanisms within

the national educational structure that would verify educational curricula proposed or

implemented by the NGOs.

Article 11 - The right to protection of health

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to protection of health, the Parties

undertake, either directly or in co-operation with public or private organisations, to take

appropriate measures designed inter alia:

1. to remove as far as possible the causes of ill-health;

2. to provide advisory and educational facilities for the promotion of health and the

encouragement of individual responsibility in matters of health;

3. to prevent as far as possible epidemic, endemic and other diseases, as well as accidents.

Health sector in both entities is weak and inadequately financed. Many people are not covered by

health insurance, and those who are, often find their coverage unreliable. Many rural areas lack

effective medical care. In the Federation BiH, there are some parallel health systems.5

Enjoyment of the rights in the area of health care is covered by the Entity Laws on health care

and Laws on Health Insurance. According to what the NGOs know, implementation of these

laws in practice is not complete. Access to health care is made particularly difficult to vulnerable

groups – people with disabilities, including people with mental disability, women and children-

victims of domestic violence, or victims of war rapes, as well as the returnees. One may say

particularly to the returnees, because the right to health care is exercised exclusively on the basis

of registered address, not by free choice. This means that in case they decide to go to their pre-

war homes, in the other entity, this may become a problem in terms of exercising the right to

health care. The right to health care is acquired by changing the home registration and registering

the new home address, and it can be exercised only at designated location. However, there are

problems in terms of distance of the health institutions from the returnees’ homes, but also in the

form of the lack of confidence and insecurity among returnees, particularly in the areas where

serious crimes had been committed. Exercising the right to health care is also linked to

5 European Commission Report on readiness of BH to begin negotiations on the Stabilization and

Accessoin Agreement


15

inaccessibility of health institutions because of their distance from the returnee settlements and

inexistence of mobile health offices (ambulanta).

Access to the basic medicines necessary to people with disabilities is limited because of

inadequate and discriminatory legislative framework. Some provisions of the Law on Health

care discriminate against people with disabilities on the grounds of causes of disability, placing

the disabled persons whose disability is not consequence of war activities in a worse position. In

addition, the law fails to provide for measures of securing comprehensive preventive and curative

care and rehabilitation.

Accessibility of health and social protection is limited also for many elderly people who do not

have regular income (pension), who do not have basic health insurance, and can not afford to buy

the medicines. The patronage services for the elderly and people with disabilities that operate

within the Health Centers (“Dom zdravlja”) are underdeveloped. The centers for social work are

not monitoring closely enough the situation of the elderly and exhausted people, and they rarely

go to the field.

Especially difficult is to exercise the right to health care because of physical / territorial (in)

accessibility of health institution. Majority of disabled people, but also other population

(particularly elderly and ill) in rural and underdeveloped areas are not covered by primary health

care measures.

Another distinct problem is the issue of indirect access to health care of children, through their

parents or guardians. There is no legal solution or mechanism for ensuring health insurance/care

in case that a parent or guardian does not ever get the status of an insured person, or looses that

status. Also, the Law does not foresee the possibility of people with serious disabilities to get the

status of an insured. In the municipality Tuzla alone, some 100 children come seeking health

services who do not have health insurance. In the same area, 702 children have been registered

who have no health insurance, and only thanks to the NGO Amica from Tuzla they are able to

exercise the right to temporary health care.

Real life examples of situations when the children have no right to health insurance:

- children of workers ‘on waiting lists’ or ‘workers without salaries’ for whom the employers

do not pay health insurance contributions or pay them irregularly;

- children of the unemployed parents/guardians who had failed to get registered with the

Employment Institute within thirty days since completion of education or termination of

previous employment;

- children of parents/guardians who had not obtained from their employers the decision on

termination of employment contract within legally stipulated time;

- children of uninsured parents/guardians aged 15, who had not completed primary schools,

or had not found employment after completion of primary school;

- children of uninsured parents/guardians under 15 who had stopped going to regular schools;

- school age children who, for any reasons, had never been included in the regular education

system, or outgrown children who are attending extraordinary schools;

- children who are not registered in Registry Office (without birth certificates), mostly Roma

children, who, according to the current legislation, ‘do not exist’ (even when they finally


16

get registered in the Registry, because of the expired deadlines, they still can not exercise

their right to health insurance).

Even the rationale for compulsory registration with the Employment Institute within 60 days,

whether after completion of education or after termination of working relationship is questionable

since this obligation leads to loosing the right to health insurance and care, of both the insure and

members of his family who are ensured through them.

Article 12 - The right to social security

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to social security, the Parties

undertake:

1. to establish or maintain a system of social security;

2. to maintain the social security system at a satisfactory level at least equal to that necessary

for the ratification of the European Code of Social Security;

3. to endeavour to raise progressively the system of social security to a higher level;

4. to take steps, by the conclusion of appropriate bilateral and multilateral agreements or by

other means, and subject to the conditions laid down in such agreements, in order to ensure:

a. equal treatment with their own nationals of the nationals of other Parties in respect

of social security rights, including the retention of benefits arising out of social

security legislation, whatever movements the persons protected may undertake between

the territories of the Parties;

b. the granting, maintenance and resumption of social security rights by such means as

the accumulation of insurance or employment periods completed under the legislation

of each of the Parties.

The present legislative framework in BiH is reflected in existence of the Laws of two entities that

approach to the issues from the field of social rights and social protection in various ways. This

does not ensure unified right to enjoyment of social protection without discrimination for all

citizens of BiH, while some whole categories of persons have been deprived of their rights to

social protection and assistance in spite of the fact that the international standards avail them of

such rights.

The rights have not been clearly defined and delineated by law, and they are mutually interloping.

So, for instance, the existing law in FBiH covers three separate areas: social protection,

protection of civilian victims of war and protection of families with children, and as such, has an

unclear concept and is very complex for implementation. Beneficiaries of social assistance are

explicitly listed in the law (laws), thus restricting the access to this right to unmentioned possible

beneficiaries who, according to international standards, would be entitled to this assistance.

The laws fragmentally provide for rights in the area of social protection and social assistance, and

they provide equal treatment to various vulnerable groups having different needs. Due to


17

inappropriateness of legislative solutions and their non-harmonization with the international

standards, the burden of obligation to ensure social protection and security is transferred from the

state to the family. In this way, the state passes on some of its obligations and responsibilities

onto the citizens, and the groups of people who do not have families to provide them with this

assistance and protection can not realize their rights at all.

In the Federation BiH, the whole process is made additionally complex by the fact that some

rights from this area have been transferred to the Cantons. Cantons often abuse this situation and

fail to adopt necessary laws, or they adopt them without any respect to fundamental principles or

minimum rights foreseen by the laws of FBiH. There is a practice that some cantons, instead of

adopting necessary laws, adopt provisional decisions, what is really an attempt to avoid the

obligation of securing social security. All this contributes to deepening social insecurity and

discrimination of beneficiaries according to the place where they live, depending on the

economic wealth of a particular canton or municipality.

Discrepancies exist also in the relationship between the laws in the area of social protection and

other laws that are touching upon the rights in this area of social security, such as, for example,

the Law on Health Care and the Law on Health Insurance. This further leads to some categories

of beneficiaries’ inability to exercise their rights. So for instance, Roma children of ten do not

exercise their right to health care unless they are attending regular school, the unemployed

persons are not exercising their right to health care, etc.

From all said above, one may conclude that the existing legislative framework is not providing a

good basis for enjoying the rights in the areas covered by the Charter and the European Code of

Social Security in the way the countries are expected to ensure. The non-governmental

organizations are of the opinion that a comprehensive reform in this area is necessary, a reform

that would, first of all, mean a reform of legislative framework and establishment of appropriate

mechanisms to ensure the implementation of the laws in practice.

Furthermore, there is the obligation of the country, even when the resources available are

insufficient, to ensure as high as possible degree of enjoyment of all relevant rights. This is

particularly important in situations when there are rally serious problems posed by limited

available resources, as is the case in BiH, which is going through a post-war period and transition

at the same time. These, particularly aggravating circumstances that exist in BiH today, hurt the

vulnerable categories of population most because their rights are not protected neither de iure nor

de facto. Very limited are the Government initiatives to get engaged in developing projects or

seeking international funds for ensuring social rights for effective provision to 50% of population

who live under or just above the poverty line. Also, adequate legislative framework for attracting

foreign funds to BiH is missing (privatization, tax legislation, market divided into two entities,

etc.), what, coupled with high unemployment in BiH, influences the possibilities of receiving

social protection, which is mostly linked to the labor and rights stemming from labor relations.

An additional problem is that ten years have passed since the end of the war in BiH and the social

chart at the country level has not yet been made, and there are no relevant data on social needs of

population.


18

Article 13 - The right to social and medical assistance

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to social and medical assistance, the

Parties undertake:

1. to ensure that any person who is without adequate resources and who is unable to secure

such resources either by his own efforts or from other sources, in particular by benefits under

a social security scheme, be granted adequate assistance, and, in case of sickness, the care

necessitated by his condition;

2. to ensure that persons receiving such assistance shall not, for that reason, suffer from a

diminution of their political or social rights;

3. to provide that everyone may receive by appropriate public or private services such advice

and personal help as may be required to prevent, to remove, or to alleviate personal or family

want;

4. to apply the provisions referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of this article on an equal footing

with their nationals to nationals of other Parties lawfully within their territories, in

accordance with their obligations under the European Convention on Social and Medical

Assistance, signed at Paris on 11 December 1953.

The existing system of social protection in BiH provides in a certain extent the rights to social

and medical assistance; however, it does not offer equal social security to all citizens, and whole

categories of persons are not exercising their rights to social protection and assistance.

The beneficiaries of social assistance are explicitly listed in the law (laws), thus restricting the

access to this right to unmentioned possible beneficiaries who, according to international

standards, would otherwise be entitled to this assistance. There are several categories of socially

vulnerable individuals and groups that are not at all covered by the social protection system, or

who are not sufficiently covered under the existing system.

Right to financial social benefit generally exists in the form of temporary or “one-time” financial

aid that may be given a limited number of times in a year to individual beneficiaries, and the

permanent financial benefit in FBiH, or in the form of “extended aid” (material security) that

exists in the Republika Srpska. However, this social assistance is rather a formal fulfillment of

obligations of the state, not a real intention to ensure minimum funds necessary for life to all who

need them.

Discrimination exists in provision of financial social benefit. Due to non-harmonized laws at the

levels of entities, cantons and municipalities, the amount of financial social benefit is not the

same for all. The discrimination is seen in:

- Specifying criteria for awarding the social benefit;

- Decision making process on awarding the social benefit;

- Categorization of poor and identification of the most vulnerable.


19

Of 370,000 registered unemployed in FBiH, only 5,800 or 1.5% received this financial benefit in

January, while 189,006 or 62% do have health insurance. Those are the only forms of material

and social security of a part of the unemployed, providing that the financial benefit, depending on

the years of employment, may be received for six, nine or twelve months.

The unemployment benefit, as well as the family benefits, are totally inadequate and almost

neglectable. Such poor legal solutions have mostly affected the most vulnerable and the poorest

categories of population – namely women in rural areas, national minorities, pensioners,

returnees, etc.

Particularly complex is the situation of women victims of war rapes, who had been marginalized

and excluded from the system of provision of social protection for long time after the war. They

had no right to health care etc. Recently, laws have been adopted to include this category in the

system of social protection, but the secondary legislation has not been adopted yet to enable

implementation of the law and provision of government assistance to this category of population.

Presently, they receive some limited assistance only from non-governmental organizations that

have it in their programs to provide assistance and advocacy for rights of this very sensitive

group.

Article 14 - The right to benefit from social welfare services

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to benefit from social welfare services,

the Parties undertake:

1. to promote or provide services which, by using methods of social work, would contribute to

the welfare and development of both individuals and groups in the community, and to their

adjustment to the social environment;

2. to encourage the participation of individuals and voluntary or other organisations in the

establishment and maintenance of such services.

Level of equipment and quality of work and services provided by the centers for social work vary

significantly across BiH (subjective and objective problems) resulting with insufficient quality of

care that varies across the territory of the country.

Within the government services, some contemporary concepts of social protection have not yet

been adopted, as for instance, active involvement of beneficiaries, comprehensive approach,

multi-disciplinary work, cooperation with non-governmental organizations and other government

organizations that play a role in protection of vulnerable categories. The communication

channels and cooperation protocols are generally lacking between the centers for social work, the

police, judiciary, non-governmental organizations or homes for children without parental care.

Although there are some local level examples of good cooperation involving non-governmental

organizations (for instance, in Sarajevo, Tuzla, Mostar, Bihac and Banja Luka, where they work

to help and take care of victims of domestic violence), but there is no broader framework and


20

permanent cooperation. Communication between the centers for social work and non-

governmental organization is very limited and this hampers sharing professional experience and

developing unified approach and policy. Apart from the initiative by the non-governmental

organizations, programs for professional training of the personnel working in centers for social

work are inexistent, so the workers in the Centers are often unable to provide appropriate

professional assistance to beneficiaries, and their interventions are generally restricted to

financial assistance.

In BiH, there is still not a single government institution where the persons who survived some

domestic violence or violence by their partners, violence against children or trafficking could find

a shelter. For the time being, such assistance is only provided by non-governmental

organizations through operation of safe houses. The state only exceptionally helps the work of

these organizations and safe houses by paying a part of the housing costs for the victims of

trafficking and assistance to the safe house for victims of domestic violence in the Sarajevo

Canton. The state has not yet formed a single institution where the violent party would be placed

when the Law on Prohibition of Domestic Violence is implemented.

Article 15 - The right of persons with disabilities to independence, social integration and

participation in the life of the community

With a view to ensuring to persons with disabilities, irrespective of age and the nature and origin

of their disabilities, the effective exercise of the right to independence, social integration and

participation in the life of the community, the Parties undertake, in particular:

1. to take the necessary measures to provide persons with disabilities with guidance, education

and vocational training in the framework of general schemes wherever possible or, where

this is not possible, through specialised bodies, public or private;

2. to promote their access to employment through all measures tending to encourage employers

to hire and keep in employment persons with disabilities in the ordinary working environment

and to adjust the working conditions to the needs of the disabled or, where this is not possible

by reason of the disability, by arranging for or creating sheltered employment according to

the level of disability. In certain cases, such measures may require recourse to specialised

placement and support services;

3. to promote their full social integration and participation in the life of the community in

particular through measures, including technical aids, aiming to overcome barriers to

communication and mobility and enabling access to transport, housing, cultural activities

and leisure.

1.

Appropriate mechanisms and conditions for implementation of legal provisions related to

inclusion of children with special needs in the education system adjusted to individual means are

lacking because the introduction of the inclusive education had not been accompanied with

adequate training of the teachers.


21

The issue of education of children with physical disabilities is very far from being systematically

resolved. Hundreds of children have no access to schools all over Bosnia and Herzegovina

because of physical barriers that keep them away from school buildings and school premises and

inexistence of appropriate means of transportation. Children with serious disabilities, particularly

in rural areas, are completely excluded from primary education, and there are no legislative

solutions or mechanisms to provide them with access to schools and realization of their rights to

education and access to school buildings. Poverty is yet another problem, because the free

transport to school has not been provided in a systematic fashion (where it exists), and the

children from poor families are not provided with free textbooks.

The authorities are passive towards education of children with disabilities since most of the

schools are structurally unadjusted (inappropriate school infrastructure – access roads, staircases,

toilets). Such children may attend school only with help of their parents and some limited

assistance of the association of the persons with disabilities, centers for social work, or they

attend the school with a sort of an “agreement” to study at home and take exams at the end of

each grade. Many children are deprived of even such limited options, and they are not receiving

any education.

2.

The persons with disabilities have limited opportunity to find employment (there are no

professional training, re-training or employment programs) because the state does not offer any

solutions through the existing legislative framework or through implementation of law and inter-

sectoral solutions.

The law on professional rehabilitation, training and employing people with disabilities was

adopted in the Republika Srpska in November 2004, and accordingly, a Fund for Employing

People With Disabilities was established and all secondary legislation for its implementation

were adopted. During 2006, changes and amendments to this Law were prepared to prevent

misinterpretations and evasions in implementation of some provisions due to some discrepancies

with the Law on Public Procurement. Proposed changes have received support by the

Government of the RS and are currently in regular procedure of adoption by the Parliament of

RS. It is important to mention that presently, the money comes to this Fund from direct grants,

what is very good and in interest of the beneficiaries. Unfortunately, some initiatives are being

heard lately to change this system and not pay these earmarked funds directly, but instead to have

them paid to the budget, from which they would then be transferred to the Fund in accordance

with the needs. There is a well justified concern in the community of the people with disabilities

that in this case the Fund would be deprived of necessary financing.

The Federation of BiH has not adopted the Law on Rehabilitation, Training and Employing the

People with Disabilities at all. A preliminary draft of the law was prepared (drafted in

cooperation with the non-governmental organizations), and it was submitted to the parliamentary

procedure, but unfortunately, it has not been adopted yet (May 2007).

With regards to exercising the right to work, the persons with mental retardation are also

vulnerable. The rulebook on assessing damage to organism of people with disabilities, in the


22

process of exercising the rights under the Law on Basics of Social Protection, Protection of

Civilian Victims of War and Protection of Families with Children of FBiH, article 9 that speaks

about people with mental disability, foresees that the working ability would be judged only on the

basis of the intelligence ratings, while the NGOs are of the opinion that some other parameters

should be taken into consideration in this evaluation too (for instance, social behavior, work-

related functional abilities). The rulebook is, generally speaking, impossible to implement,

because it references mostly to the rulebook used for military war disabled, and deals with the

war-related disability. The NGOs are of the opinion that the rulebook of the World Health

Organization should be used instead, and they have already started an initiative to make the

necessary changes to the Rulebook.

Some cantonal employment institutes in the Federation of BiH (Herzegovina-Neretva, Central

Bosnia) adopt annual programs for employing the people with disabilities, mostly through co-

financing payment of contributions for employed people with disabilities, and by awarding

contracts to companies employing them. In the opinion of the associations of people with

disabilities, one weakness of such programs and rulebooks is that the employers are not obliged

to retain in the working relationship the persons with disabilities after the expiry of one year

(eighteen months in some cantons), so this approach to this important issue is in fact only

temporary and partial.

3.

Access to health institution is difficult for the disabled persons due to physical barriers and

inexistence of necessary medical equipment for conducting specific examination (e.g.

gynecological equipment for women with disabilities). Generally speaking, health institutions

are not adjusted and accessible for the people with disabilities (ramps, orientation points for the

blind, lower counters, adequate lifts, adjusted toilets, visual signs for deaf persons, equipment for

gynecological examination of women using wheelchairs, etc.).

In the area of social protection of people with disabilities, there is on the law based discrimination

between the individuals who became disabled during the war or in connection with war (and even

within this category, there is a big difference between the civilian and military victims of war)

and those who are disabled for other reasons. So, for instance, according to the current law in

FBiH, civilian war victims receive 70% of the benefit paid to the military war disabled; while the

individuals with disability that is not result of war receive a lot lower benefits. According to the

laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina that regulate the rights of people with disabilities, the range of

benefits for persons with first category of disability goes from 20 EURO to 850 EURO.


23

Article 16 - The right of the family to social, legal and economic protection

With a view to ensuring the necessary conditions for the full development of the family, which is a

fundamental unit of society, the Parties undertake to promote the economic, legal and social

protection of family life by such means as social and family benefits, fiscal arrangements,

provision of family housing, benefits for the newly married and other appropriate means.

Even though the law prescribes the rights to child allowance, many families and groups of

children in BiH do not exercise this right, or exercise it in varying scope. According to the law,

each family that is found in social need is entitled to child allowance (this means any family

where the income per household member does not exceed 15-20% of average salary). However,

in most of the country only some categories of children actually use this right, such as children

without one or both parents, and children with disturbed physical or psychical development.

Exercise of this right is restricted by economic situation of the region where the family lives, very

restrictive property census for qualifying, very low amount, irregular payments and several

months of delays in payment.

Article 17 - The right of children and young persons to social, legal and economic protection

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right of children and young persons to grow

up in an environment which encourages the full development of their personality and of their

physical and mental capacities, the Parties undertake, either directly or in co-operation with

public and private organisations, to take all appropriate and necessary measures designed:

1. to ensure that children and young persons, taking account of the rights and duties of their

parents, have the care, the assistance, the education and the training they need, in particular

by providing for the establishment or maintenance of institutions and services sufficient and

adequate for this purpose;

b. to protect children and young persons against negligence, violence or exploitation;

c. to provide protection and special aid from the state for children and young persons

temporarily or definitively deprived of their family's support;

2. to provide to children and young persons a free primary and secondary education as well as

to encourage regular attendance at schools.

Discrimination in education in BiH

In the specific context of BiH education system and its constitutional and legal framework, we

can talk about two categories of minority peoples and their right to „grow up in an environment

which encourages the full development of their personality and of their physical and mental

capacities', as foreseen under Article 17 of the Charter. Those are (1) members of one of

constituent peoples in BiH who are minority in certain territories; and (2) members of national


24

minorities in classic meaning of the word (such as, for instance, Roma, Checks, Slovenians,

Albanians, etc.). The Constitution of BiH, and especially the Agreement on Satisfying Special

Needs and Rights of Children Returnees, provide to the first group of minorities some special

rights. One of such rights is the right to education that meets specific cultural needs of students

who belong to a minority peoples, what, among other things, means following the curriculum of

one’s own choice. However, a recently conducted research on national group of subjects in

primary schools in BiH6 indicate that this right is exercised by every fourth student who is

member of minority peoples. Most of them attend schools that segregate their pupils and are

known as “two schools under the same roof”. In such schools, there are parallel curricula in use,

and students of different nationalities are kept physically separated.

An additional form of minority discrimination is religious education. In principle, religious

education is offered in BiH schools only to students who are majority on a specific territory.

Minority group of children of different nationality do not receive religious education. On the

other hand, children who do not attend classes of religion (whether because their parents don’t

want them to, or children don’t want to go, or they are members of minority group), are not

offered any alternative program, and spend that hour on that own, waiting for the class to finish

(in most cases, such classes are not the last in a day’s schedule). Religion is taught by teachers

employed and trained by religious institutions, while the state and the ministries of education

have no influence on curriculum for this subject.

We may conclude that the position of students who are members of the above described first

category of minority peoples in education system of BiH is determined by, on one hand, policy of

segregation that prevents students of different nationalities to go to school together, and on the

other hand, policy of assimilation according to which all students, regardless of their ethnic

background, follow the curricula of the majority peoples.

A recently conducted analysis of curricula and textbooks of national group of subjects in BiH7

found that the educational contents in Bosnia and Herzegovina often use legitimization of

“knowledge” that is presented as scientific and neutral to make the children adopt views that lead

to linguistic, historical and cultural division along ethnic lines. The textbooks promote collective

values over individual/civil values, they incite ethnic homogenization and adoption of stereotype

values on their own and other groups, all for the purpose of maintaining the current social,

economical and political status.

1. a)

Only 6% of children in urban centers are included in pre-primary education, while in rural areas

pre-primary institutions are almost inexistent. Introduction of the nine-year primary education

has not resolved this problem because the first grade curriculum has not been harmonized with

the needs and methods for preparation period for teaching.

6 Open Society Fund BiH (OSF BiH, 2007) „Research of attitudes of parents and pupils on the values of

the curricula and textbooks of the national group of subjects in BiH“ 7 Open Society Fund BiH (OSF BiH, 2007b) «Analysis of Content of Curricula and Textbooks of National

Group of Subjects in Primary and Secondary Schools in BiH »


25

Appropriate mechanisms and conditions for implementation of legal provisions related to

inclusion of children with special needs in the education system adjusted to individual means are

lacking. Introduction of inclusive education has not been accompanied with adequate preparation

of teachers and adjustments of the curricula, and there are no mechanisms that would provide for

involvement of local community in provision of support.

The issue of education of children with physical disabilities is very far from being systematically

resolved. Hundreds of children have no access to schools all over Bosnia and Herzegovina

because of physical barriers that keep them away from school buildings and school premises and

inexistence of appropriate means of transportation. Children with serious disabilities, particularly

in rural areas, are completely excluded from primary education, and there are no legislative

solutions or mechanisms to provide them with access to schools and realization of their rights to

education and access to school buildings. Poverty is yet another problem, because the free

transport to school has not been provided in a systematic fashion (where it exists), and the

children from poor families are not provided with free textbooks.

The authorities are passive towards education of children with disabilities since most of the

schools are structurally unadjusted (inappropriate school infrastructure – access roads, staircases,

toilets). Such children can come to school only with help of their parents and with some limited

assistance of the association of the persons with disabilities, centers for social work, or they

attend the school with a sort of an “agreement” to study at home and take exams at the end of

each grade. Many children are deprived of even such limited options, and they are not receiving

any education.

There is no solution to educate children in the rehabilitation centers. There is only one

rehabilitation center in BiH (in Banja Luka) that has an educational institution within its own

premises. There is a strong need for a similar institution in the Federation of BiH. In addition,

education needs to be offered to children who are hospitalized for lengthy periods of time, an

issue that is presently not resolved. Also, the Centers for treating addiction, where such

treatments usually lasts between 3 and 5 years, do not have any program that would enable

acquisition of regular education.

In realizing the right to equal access to education for all, particularly threatened are the

marginalized groups and national minorities because regular education system does not contain

mechanisms that would enable an affirmative action to promote position of such groups. The

adopted Action Plan concerning educational needs of Roma and other minorities had no

significant effect in practice because it has failed to foresee the mechanisms for implementation

of the plan, or for monitoring of the implementation.

1. b)

The issue of economic exploitation of children in Bosnia and Herzegovina mostly relates to

children in streets who are begging. Legislation that protects the children from economic

exploitation is at the entity level.

Unfortunately, all over BiH children are abused to “work in streets” – begging, washing car

windshields, selling cigarettes, etc. Juveniles are involved in sexual exploitation, parents force


26

children to work to help the family survive, the children are taken out of schools to help at home

or on land (mostly in rural areas). There is a trend of increase of begging in BiH. Considering

the circumstances, it can be classified as a harmful to children. This abuse of children gains in

proportions and is organized mostly by the families; it is not a rare case that the children become

victims of organized crime. Children spend days in streets, often held by their parents or when

they are older, instead of being in schools, they are begging in streets. Those children are

neglected in terms of their education, hygiene, health care. Sometimes, this kind of life is so

detrimental for their health that it can even become life threatening. The children are deprived of

their right to childhood, being with other children, education, all the things promoted under the

Convention on the Rights of the Child. Unprotected by the community and neglected by parents

or guardians, they are easy prey for organized criminal groups. This is where the system of

protection has completely failed – the system that should exist at the level of the state to get these

children away from the streets and sanction the family members adequately. There are no

appropriate and sufficient capacities to house such children when they have to be taken away

from their families.

Only a limited number of NGOs have programs that bring them in contact with children who live

and work in streets. The data from research conducted by the NGO “Zemlja djece” (“Land of

Children”) from Tuzla say that 100-200 children, aged 1 to 16, are exposed to economic

exploitation in larger urban areas on daily basis. Among the interviewed children, aged 7-16,

75% are not going to school, while 25% had never gone to school and do not know to read or

write. Conditions in which such children live are extremely difficult (deserted and ruined

building, makeshift sheds etc.) Almost 90% of the children do not have health insurance, and

because of that, 50% of them feel ill or sick. Around 30% of children show signs of malnutrition

or anemia. In most cases, neither they nor their families are covered by the system of social

protection and security.

2.

According to the BiH laws, primary education is compulsory for all and free. Unfortunately, the

situation greatly differs in practice, so education is neither free, nor attended by all those who

should attend it. Right to primary education is not realized by all children in BiH (94% of

children are covered, and 99% of those who enroll the first grade get to the fifth grade of primary

school)8. Particularly vulnerable are the members of Roma minority (some sources state that only

15% of the Roma children are covered by primary education9, while other sources say that this

percentage is only 10% or less10

), children with developmental impediments, returnee children in

areas where other constituent peoples are majority, children in rural areas where there is no

organized transport to schools, but there are also cases of girls leaving school once they finish the

fourth grade.

It is estimated that in BiH, 15% of primary school students live more than 3 km far from the

school and the parents often tend to keep the children at home, particularly if no transport to

8 Report of the Helsinki Human Rights Report for 2004

9 Estimate of development of democracy Open Society Fund BiH for 2006

10 Human Development Report 2007, UNDP


27

school is organized. Parents are rarely sanctioned for their decision not to send their children to

primary school, or for taking them out after the fourth grade.

A trend has become noticeable in recent years that parents increasingly fail to enroll their

daughters to schools. The biggest reason for this is of economic nature: education is very

expensive and if a family has several children, they prefer to send boys to schools since they will

need it more as future “earners of income” in their own families. Unfortunately, this trend is

gaining in strength since there are no attempts by responsible agencies and institutions to change

the situation. There are no official data on the numbers of not enrolled children divided by sex,

however, some informal data suggest that the numbers have reached alarming levels. Also, there

are no action plans of the responsible authorities or institutions to raise awareness of the general

public of this problem and inform the parents of their legal obligations. This way the girls are

taken out of all segments of future socially useful life, they are deprived of possibility of

achieving any economic progress, and they are made dependant on their families.

So, even though the primary education is compulsory for all, and there are sanctions prescribed

for parents whose children are not attending the school, the authorities made no effort to resolve

the problems that are the core reason for children not going to school, as stated above:

- lack of organized transport to school for children from remote areas;

- lack of appropriate transport for children with disabilities;

- structural barriers in schools;

- lack of systematic solution for free textbooks and free transport for children from poor

families.

Only the teaching process in primary schools is free; however, in situation where 50% of

population lives at the verge of poverty, buying textbooks, clothes, food, transport falls hard on

parents in approximately 50% of families in BiH. The state offers no systematic solution for free

textbooks, transport, or lunch for all those in situation of need. Some cantons (through the

Ministry of Education and Science of FBiH) cover part of the costs of books and teaching aids for

children in need according to the lists supplied by the centers for social work. Some

municipalities cover part of costs of transport for students. Foreseen free textbooks for Roma

children are not equally accessible in all areas of BiH, and the situation i similar with the foreseen

free transport. There are no textbooks on minority languages.

Also, the Law on Primary and Secondary Education of FBiH provides an opportunity to take

exams for grades of primary school, but those exams are not free as stipulated in the Charter

(their price ranges between 100 – 200 EUR).


28

Article 20 - The right to equal opportunities and equal treatment in matters of employment and

occupation without discrimination on the grounds of sex

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to equal opportunities and equal

treatment in matters of employment and occupation without discrimination on the grounds of sex,

the Parties undertake to recognise that right and to take appropriate measures to ensure or

promote its application in the following fields:

a) access to employment, protection against dismissal and occupational reintegration;

b) vocational guidance, training, retraining and rehabilitation;

c) terms of employment and working conditions, including remuneration;

d) career development, including promotion.

These provisions provide for ensuring equal rights both in law and in practice. Unfortunately,

there is a huge difference in BiH between what is written in laws and what happens in reality.

Although there is no legislative discrimination in enjoyment of all relevant rights, such

discrimination is deeply rooted in practice. There are many reasons for this, and certainly, one of

them is the fact that BiH is deeply patriarchal society where women would always be fired before

men because the men have to “feed their families” and therefore “need the job more”.

Also, in spite of the provisions of domestic law that pregnancy of women may not be used as

grounds for letting her go, this actually happens often, particularly in private companies and

corporations that are increasing in numbers, and since they are not “state-owned”, they do not

feel obliged to consistently apply law in all matters. What raises most concern is indolent attitude

of the government agencies that are supposed to ensure implementation of the law towards this

problem (e.g. responsible inspections etc. who reluctantly check private companies for

compliance). A significant contribution to the whole situation is the fact that appropriate

government mechanisms to ensure implementation of law are lacking, and quite often, it is not

clear who is responsible for monitoring implementation of the law, and this is used as an excuse

for laws that are adopted, but not implemented in reality (for instance, Law on Gender Equality).

It is very hard to determine whether the remunerations are the same for men and women,

considering that there are no such data in BiH, and nobody keeps such records.

Over the last four years, only around ten women turned to the Association “Žena BiH” for free

legal aid complaining of violations of their right to work. Those are mostly cases involving the

violations of the employment contract by the employer; failure to comply with the Law on Labor,

particularly Article 143; failure to respect the Law on Gender Equality – particularly Article 10 –

access to economic operations, and cases of mobbing – harassment at workplace.


29

Article 23 - The right of elderly persons to social protection

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right of elderly persons to social protection,

the Parties undertake to adopt or encourage, either directly or in co-operation with public or

private organisations, appropriate measures designed in particular:

1. to enable elderly persons to remain full members of society for as long as possible, by means

of:

a. adequate resources enabling them to lead a decent life and play an active part in

public, social and cultural life;

b. provision of information about services and facilities available for elderly persons and

their opportunities to make use of them;

2. to enable elderly persons to choose their life-style freely and to lead independent lives in

their familiar surroundings for as long as they wish and are able, by means of:

a. provision of housing suited to their needs and their state of health or of adequate support

for adapting their housing;

b. the health care and the services necessitated by their state;

3. to guarantee elderly persons living in institutions appropriate support, while respecting

their privacy, and participation in decisions concerning living conditions in the institution.

Elderly people in BiH in general, as well as the pensioners, are in very difficult socio-economic

situation. Lack of harmonization of laws and discrimination in implementation of laws along the

lines described above, hit the elderly particularly hard since they are not able to survive on the

minimal pensions they receive and can not buy costly medicines they need, while at the same

time they do not belong in a category of population that would receive the necessary government

assistance. Very poor and almost inexistent is the cooperation between different government

social institutions that are responsible for elderly people. Since there is no institutional system of

care of the elderly, the whole burden of taking care of the elderly has been shifted onto the

families, if they have them. Because of this, the elderly people in BiH have been pushed far aside

to the margin with respect to their right to enjoy their economic, social and cultural rights.

Average pension, which hardly meets the needs for food, in January 2007 amounted to:

In the Federation BIH 135 EUR

In the Republika Srpska 105 EUR.


30

Article 26 - The right to dignity at work

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right of all workers to protection of their

dignity at work, the Parties undertake, in consultation with employers' and workers'

organisations:

1. to promote awareness, information and prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace or

in relation to work and to take all appropriate measures to protect workers from such

conduct;

2. to promote awareness, information and prevention of recurrent reprehensible or distinctly

negative and offensive actions directed against individual workers in the workplace or in

relation to work and to take all appropriate measures to protect workers from such conduct.

In recent times, according to informal data offered by the non-governmental sector, there is a

trend of increased mobbing in workplace. This is particularly obvious in private companies, but

is also present in state owned companies and institutions. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the issue

of mobbing is not legislated, and thus unrecognized by law. However, there are more and more

such developments being reported to the NGO sector, which is then unable to start a procedure

before courts for such cases. Generally speaking, even the general public is not familiar with

mobbing as a form of violence and/or discrimination in the workplace, so many people, even

though they are victims of mobbing, are not aware of that and simply suffer all the harassment

and pestering because they want to keep their jobs at any cost.

Article 30 - The right to protection against poverty and social exclusion

With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to protection against poverty and social

exclusion, the Parties undertake:

a) to take measures within the framework of an overall and co-ordinated approach to promote

the effective access of persons who live or risk living in a situation of social exclusion or

poverty, as well as their families, to, in particular, employment, housing, training, education,

culture and social and medical assistance;

b) to review these measures with a view to their adaptation if necessary.

The collapse of BiH society caused by war and the fact that very little has changed in the society

after the war is the key issue of great influence on the situation of social exclusion in BiH. Ethnic

divisions still remain one of the strongest roots of social exclusion. Consequences of war

movements and expelling on ethnic grounds, as well as the inexistence of integrated return to the

pre-war homes of minority peoples, are one of most explicit forms of social exclusion in BiH.

The three constituent peoples in BiH (Bosniak, Serbs, Croats) are socially included within their

own ethnic groups, but they exclude individuals of different ethnic background. At the same


31

time, the room for normal inclusion of citizens as individuals is narrow. Groups who are

particularly hit by marginalization at various levels (in education, employment, health, social

participation) are the returnees to the areas where they constitute minority, Roma, people with

disabilities, the elderly.11

The number of people who are poor or at the verge of poverty is huge. Statistics speak about

50% of BiH population who live at the verge of poverty, or 2 million people. Considering that

there is no a right to financial social benefit that is provided by law, as discussed above, many

citizens have only their families to rely on (that is, if they have families, and if their families can

afford that) in helping them survive.

Minimal funds needed for mere survival / the average consumer basket for four-member family

(that includes housing costs, costs of utilities, education of children, hygiene and basic cultural

needs) are 2.5 the amount of average salary, or 5 times the average monthly pension, what places

more than 50% of population in situation of material social exclusion.

Although the Value Added Tax was introduced already in January 2006, a national strategy that

would enable the use of part of these funds for developing programs in the area of social security

and protection is still lacking. In BiH, the VAT is 17% flat rate that is same for basic foods,

textbooks, food and equipment for children, etc., and this is an additional burden to the household

budgets, one that is felt particularly heavy by the vulnerable and poor groups of population. One

of the most important arguments used by national politicians when the flat VAT rate was

introduced was exactly this – the promise that there would be a comprehensive reform in the area

of social rights, which was supposed to improve and increase allocation from the government

budgets to those who needed it. Although the in-flow to the budgets has increased significantly,

unfortunately, nothing has been done regarding the social protection reform, and government

allocations to those who need them to survive have not increased.

11

Social inclusion in BiH, Human Development Report 2007, UNDP/IBHI

Documents

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS' REPORT ON THE ...icva-bh.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/... · non-governmental organizations' report on the implementation of the european