On 21-22 March the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, hosted a working conferece in Sarajevo, “10 years of combating discrimination in Bosnia and Herzegovina”. The conference served to discuss the impact, challenges and way forward on the implementation of the Law of Prohibition of Discrimination of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The conference brought together lawyers, judges, state officials, civil society representatives and others from all across Bosnia and Herzegovina. Part of the conference were also representatives of independent human rights institutions from BiH, Serbia, North Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as representatives of civil society. 
ERA’s Advocacy Manager Vuk Raičević attended the conference and contributed to the panel on “Mechanisms for protection from gender based discrimination” alongside Emina Bošnjak from Sarajevo Open Centre, Saša Leskovac from the Agency for Gender Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Midhat Izmirlija, Assistant Proffessor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Sarajevo and Lejla Gačanica, Legal advisor and independent researcher in the area of gender equality in BiH. There he presented part of the findings related to discrimination of the survey “Life on the Margins: Survey results of the experiences of LGBTI people in Southeastern Europe” conducted in 2017, and the findings from the report “Krajnji je čas” published by ERA’s member organisation CURE Foundation in BiH. The findings of the survey served to highlight the obstacles that LGBTI people face in accessing mechanisms of discrimination and the role that civil society plays in overcoming them. The conference discussions showed that, despite a decade of available anti-discrimination legislation, there is much more to be done in order to adequately combat discrimination, including that based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression and to encourage LGBTI individuals to report such cases and use all available mechanisms. 
Full agenda of the conference is available here.