OSCE Chairperson’s Personal Representatives on tolerance and non-discrimination visit Bosnia and Herzegovina

SARAJEVO, 27 May 2017 – The Personal Representatives of the Chairperson-in-Office on Combating Discrimination and Promoting Tolerance conducted a country visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which ended in Sarajevo yesterday.

Over the course of three days the Personal Representative on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination, also focusing on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians and members of other religions, Professor Ingeborg Gabriel, the Personal Representative on Combating Anti-Semitism, Rabbi Andrew Baker, and the Personal Representative on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims, Professor Bulent Senay, met with numerous representatives of religious communities, civil society organizations, the international community and government and discussed forms of discrimination and intolerance present in BiH society.

“I have been impressed by the vibrant civil society, institutions, secular as well as religious communities and the activities of their respective leaderships who struggle to create social cohesion. I call on those politically responsible to engage with all representatives to overcome discrimination and further address instances of ethnic divisions in education,” said Professor Gabriel.

Professor Senay highlighted that BiH has a reasonable legal basis for the protection of human rights, freedom of religion and the elimination of discrimination. “However, difficulties arise in the application of laws, especially in tackling hate crimes against the Muslim community and the returnee population. We have observed positive practices at the local level and encourage replication of these practices in other parts of BiH.”

Bosnia’s small Jewish community has not faced the sharp increases in anti-Semitic incidents that we have seen elsewhere in Europe, concluded Rabbi Andrew Baker, who also stressed: “The community has deep roots in this region and shares in reconstruction and reconciliation efforts that continue two decades after the Dayton agreement, particularly interreligious initiatives that are so necessary to this process. Nevertheless, it is still rebuffed in its longstanding call for communal property restitution – so important to its long-term stability – despite the progress that has been made in neighbouring countries.”

The visit of the Personal Representatives was organized under the auspices of the OSCE Austrian Chairmanship and in co-operation with the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights as well as the OSCE Mission to BiH.