LGBTI rights have taken an important place in Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Gender Action Plan (GAP) for the years 2013-2017 with the Federal Government passing earlier this March the Compiled Operational Plan for the Ministries and the Institutions of the Federation.
This was preceded in 2015 by the Annual Operational Plan of the Government of Republica Srpska which among other things has included provisions for promotion and protection of LGBT persons.
The GAP contains strategic goals, programs and provisions for achieving gender equality in all areas of social life and work, in the public and the private sphere. It offers the guidelines for the development of the annual operational plans at entity, cantonal and local levels. Moreover the Plan has specific provisions aiming at the promotion of LGBTI rights, akin to the Plan by the Government of Republica Srpska.
The Operational Plan states that “An important part of activities is aimed at groups of women and men which are exposed to multiple axes of discrimination and whose rights need to be protected and who need to be economically and psychosocially empowered, by improving the quality and the availability of services and programs. Among them are LGBT persons who still suffer multiple forms of discrimination in society”
Moreover “GAP envisions educating the Gender Centre employees on the rights and needs of LGBT persons and the introduction of a gender perspective in the training programs of police academies and other agencies for education of police officers with the aim of improving their understanding of gender equality in the security sector, hate crime and violence against the LGBT population, as well as the concept of human security.”
In line with such a plan local organization Sarajevo Open Center plans to organize soon educational workshops with representatives of gender institutional mechanisms from Bosnia & Herzegovina.