House of Representatives Adopted Proposed Definition of Hate Crime

On 24 July, the House of Representatives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the legal amendments proposed by civil society, including a definition on hate crime.

“This is a great example of cooperation between civil society organisations, and a testimony of the power of joint, strategic efforts. I am very pleased that our effort to foster a coalition of organisations in Bosnia and Herzegovina has yielded such a positive outcome”, says Sumeja Tulic, programme officer at Civil Rights Defenders.

The law will now be submitted to the House of Peoples. In September the Coalition will approach the same member of the House of Representatives on amending the Criminal Law with hate speech regulation.

This is the first time the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina introduces hate crime into Criminal Law. The Republika Srpska and Brčko District introduced hate crime regulations in their Criminal Laws already in 2010.