OSCE report highlights inadequate and unequal social assistance for vulnerable groups in BiH

SARAJEVO, 29 June 2012 – Bosnia and Herzegovina’s most vulnerable individuals are not receiving adequate and proportional social protection benefits, according to an OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina report launched today.

The report, The Right to Social Protection in BiH, gives a technical overview of the social protection system in BiH, highlighting areas of concern regarding inadequacies and inequalities, particularly from a human rights perspective, and taking into account the international human rights obligations BiH has pledged to respect.

The current system is characterized by a dichotomy between privileged categories and non-privileged categories practically creating two parallel systems of benefits, which are being awarded based on beneficiaries’ status rather than on their level of need.

“The aim of a social protection system is to contribute to a country’s social stability by ensuring that the most vulnerable groups of society are supported and integrated through access to assistance, services and insurances. The current system in BiH is failing to fulfil this obligation - to use existing resources to their maximum capacity and to prioritize support to those most in need,” said Fletcher M. Burton, the Head of the OSCE Mission to BiH.

The report aims to contribute to ongoing discussion on the need to amend and update the so-cial protection system. It provides for a comprehensive understanding of the system and the improvements necessary to bring social protection in line with international and European standards.

“The ad hoc and partial social protection measures adopted over the years are not sufficient and a comprehensive review and overhaul of the social protection system is needed to meet European standards. This report is a non-political technical tool to enable recipients to better understand the social protection system in BiH and its shortcomings, and is intended to assist domestic stakeholders, in particular entity governments, to resolve those issues that generate inadequacy and inequality in the system itself,” added Burton.

The OSCE Mission to BiH has been involved in social protection issues for many years, co-operating with and supporting the relevant institutions at governmental and local level through its extensive field presence across the country.

The full report can be downloaded at:
http://www.oscebih.org/Download.aspx?id=650&lang=EN