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Read, Debate: Engage.
| topic: | LGBT Rights |
|---|---|
| located: | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| editor: | Katarina Panić |
It took almost 13 years since the enactment of the ‘Law on Prohibition of Discrimination’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the first-ever verdict to acknowledge discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The LGBTQ+ community and human rights activists have welcomed the judgement as a historical act.
The state parliament passed the anti-discrimination law in 2009. Ten years later, the first-ever pride march took place in the country. As a reaction to the march, Samra Ćosović Hajdarević, a cantonal MP, wrote a hateful remark on her Facebook page, which led to last month’s verdict by the municipal court in the capital Sarajevo.
“Everyone has the right to live their lives as they like, but we also have the right to choose who we want to live with,” Hajdarević’s post read on 1 April, the very day the LGBTQ community held a press conference to announce the Pride parade. “I want people like this to be isolated and kept away from our children and society. Let them go somewhere else and make a city, a state, and a law for themselves and their rights that no one will dispute. But not here!”
The Sarajevo Open Centre (Sarajevski otvoreni centar), the CSO that advocates for women's and LGBTQ rights, filed a lawsuit against the homophobic politician. It has taken three years for the court to decide on a case in the first instance and, although the verdict is subject to appeal, its importance is immeasurable in the deeply homophobic Bosnian society.
“This verdict is significant for the LGBTIQ+ community in Bosnia and Herzegovina and any other community that faces prejudice, hate speech or incitement to violence,” the Bosnian Pride Parade Organising Committee stated. “The verdict proved that the spread of hate speech and calls for violence against LGBTQI + people in the online sphere could also expand and affect the quality of life for LGBTQI+ people and lead to physical violence.”
They stressed that many public figures in Bosnia have been spreading prejudice, intolerance and hate speech toward LGBTQ people after they took to the streets for the first time.
“The Pride Parade is a test for all institutions, MPs, and society regarding respecting human rights and living without violence. In the spirit of this year's Pride Parade, which is on June 25, let this verdict be a warning to everyone: that every hate speech and call for violence will be reported and that we will expect their sanctioning“, the organisers exclaimed.
Photo by Rene Baker
