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Bosnia and Herzegovina - Initial report of States parties due in 1999: Addendum [2004] UNCRCSPR 21; CRC/C/11/Add.28 (14 October 2004)
UNITED NATIONS
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CRC
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Convention on the Rights of the Child
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Distr. GENERAL
CRC/C/11/Add.28 14 October 2004
Original: ENGLISH
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COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
CONSIDERATION OF
REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES
UNDER ARTICLE 44 OF THE
CONVENTION
Initial report of States parties due in 1999
BOSNIA AND
HERZEGOVINA[*]
[14 May 2004]
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Introduction 1 4 5
I. GENERAL INFORMATION 5 16 5
II. GENERAL MEASURES OF APPLICATION (arts. 4, 42
and 44) 17 32 7
III. DEFINITION OF THE CHILD (art. 1) 33 47 10
IV. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 48 60 12
A. Nondiscrimination (art. 2) 48 51 12
B. The best interests of the child (art. 6) 52 53 12
C. Right to life, survival and development (art. 6, para. 1) 54
58 13
D. Respect for the views of the child (art. 12) 59 60 13
V. CIVIL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS 61 86 14
A. Name and citizenship (art. 7) 65 68 14
B. Preservation of identity (art. 8) 69 71 15
C. Freedom of expression (art. 13) 72 15
D. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion (art. 14) 73 79 15
E. Freedom of association and peaceful assembly (art. 15) 80 83 16
F. Protection of privacy (art. 16) 84 17
G. Access to appropriate information (art. 17) 85 86 17
VI. FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND ALTERNATIVE CARE 87 179 18
A. Parental guidance (art. 5) 99 100 19
B. Parental responsibility (art. 18, paras. 12) 101 120 19
C. Separation from parents (art. 9) 121 128 22
D. Family reunion (art. 10) 129 130 23
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
E. Illicit transfer and nonreturn (art. 11) 131 132 24
F. Provision of child maintenance (art. 27, para. 4) 133 141 24
G. Children deprived of their family environment (art. 20) 142
161 25
H. Adoption (art. 21) 162 169 28
I. Abuse and neglect (art. 19) 170 173 29
J. Periodic reviews of treatment (art. 25) 174 179 30
VII. BASIC HEALTH AND WELFARE 180 312 31
A. Survival and development (art. 6, para. 2) 180 203 31
B. Children with psychological and physical
developmental
disabilities (art. 23) 204 211 36
C. Social structure, services and facilities for childcare
(arts. 26
and 18) 212 221 37
D. Health and health-care services (art. 24) 222 242 39
E. Standard of living (art. 27) 243 244 42
F. Education, leisure and cultural activities (art. 28) 245 312 42
1. Aims of education (art. 29) 277 278 47
2. Leisure, recreation and cultural activities (art. 31) 279 312 48
VIII. SPECIAL PROTECTION MEASURES 313 407 53
A. Refugee children (art. 22) 314 331 53
B. Children in armed conflict (art. 38) 332 336 56
C. Administration of juvenile justice (art. 40) 337 383 57
1. Children in conflict with the law (arts. 37 and 40) 381 382 65
2. Physical and psychological recovery and social
reintegration
(art. 39) 383 65
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
D. Economic exploitation of children, including child labour
(art.
32) 384 390 66
1. Drug addiction (art. 33) 386 389 66
2. Sexual exploitation and abuse (art. 34) 390 66
E. Minority children (art. 30) 391 393 67
F. Statistics in the Republika Srpska 394 407 67
List of annexes to the report 71
Introduction
- Bosnia
and Herzegovina (BiH) was recognized as a member of the United Nations
on 6 April 1992 as an independent State, continuing
its legal
personality within the existing, internationally recognized borders.
- The
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has been incorporated into
the legal system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in
accordance with the Constitution
of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Annex I, Additional Agreement on Human Rights to be
applied in BiH). This Convention was ratified by
Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993
and confirmed by the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and
Herzegovina (the Dayton Agreement),
i.e. by Annex 4, Article II, Item 7
(“International Agreements Bosnia and Herzegovina will remain or become a
signatory of
international agreements listed in the Annex to this
Constitution”). Accordingly, Bosnia and Herzegovina has an obligation to
submit a large number of reports, including a report on children’s
rights
and measures that have been undertaken in realization of these rights.
- This
report has been completed in accordance with the general guidelines on the
form and contents of the initial report. Data have
been collected on the
basis of the first report of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
(FBiH) on the implementation of the Convention
on the Rights of the Child for
the period 19921998, and on the basis of the first report of the
Republika Srpska (RS) on the implementation
of the Convention on the Rights
of the Child, 19921998.
- The
report consists of two parts. Part I includes general information about Bosnia
and Herzegovina (country, population); Part II covers the requirements of some
articles of the Convention. The situation in the Entities and in Bosnia and
Herzegovina is presented
in detail. Attached to this report are reports by the
Entities, where the situation related to the implementation of the Convention
on
the Rights of the Child in the BiH Entities is presented.
I. GENERAL INFORMATION
- According
to a census carried out in 1991, Bosnia and Herzegovina had a population
of 4,377,033 within 1,537 kilometres of marked
border. Cultivated land
covers 2,531,000 ha or 49.5 per cent of the total territory,
with various possibilities for agriculture
and food production in complex and
varied climate conditions (ranging from severe continental to mild
Mediterranean). Approximately
46 per cent of its territory is covered
with various types of forest. The country is famous for its hydro and thermal
energy capacities
based on water and coal resources. In 1991, BiH reached a
satisfactory level in terms of number of households and number of housing
units.
At that time, there were 1,207,693 housing units in BiH in
6,823 settlements. The average housing unit was 60.45 square metres
per
household, or 16.68 square metres per resident.
- In
1991, Bosnia and Herzegovina reached the level of medium industrial development
with a national income of approximately US$ 2,000
per resident. A total of
1.7 million BiH residents (39 per cent of the total population) were
living in urban areas. Bosnia and
Herzegovina is famous for the variety of
nationalities and ethnic minorities living within its territory. According to
the 1991
census, Bosniaks were the most numerous (43.4 per cent),
- followed
by Serbs (31.2 per cent) and Croats (17.3 per cent). An
additional 20 ethnic groups and minorities have been integrated
within BiH for
centuries. The dominant monotheistic religions have also been coexisting in
Bosnia and Herzegovina for centuries
(Islam, Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism
and Judaism), side by side with other religious communities and sects.
According to the
BiH Constitution, all its citizens enjoy equal rights and
freedoms in exercising their religious and other beliefs.
- The
distribution of the total population of BiH in 1991 by age group was as
follows: 11.1 per cent of age 06; 13 per cent of
age
717; 8.4 per cent of age 1519; 61.5 per cent of age
2064; 6 per cent of age 65 and over. The fertility rate was
52 per cent and
the mortality rate 7.4 per 1,000 for men and
6.5 per 1,000 for women (1990 figures).
- In
1991, 27,475 children, or 8 per cent of the child population, were
enrolled in 221 kindergartens and preschool institutions with
3,321
teachers. There were 2,531 elementary schools with 532,468 pupils, or
98 per cent of schoolage children, and 23,644 primary
and
middleschool teachers. There were 241 secondary schools with 165,807
students and 9,120 professors and junior highschool teachers.
In addition,
153 schools and institutions for children with special needs or physical
and psychological developmental disabilities
were functioning. These schools
and institutions had a total of 5,442 students.
- In
19921995, one of the greatest war tragedies in Europe after the Second World War
took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina, resulting
in numerous victims and war
crimes committed against the civilian population, including against a large
number of children. The
basic rules of international humanitarian law
were violated. These events produced more
than 1.2 million refugees, 420,000 of whom
were children, and
1 million internally displaced persons, 250,000 of whom were children.
In 2001, there were still 518,000 displaced
persons in BiH, of whom 108,000
were children. Approximately 617,000 refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina,
of whom 130,000 are children,
are currently accommodated in more
than 100 countries in the world.
- According
to data from the BiH Federation Report, more than 200,000 people were killed, of
whom 22,000 were children; more than 240,000
people were wounded, more
than 52,000 of whom were children, while 17,000 people are registered as
missing. More than 17,600 disabled
persons are registered, including 4,000
children. More than 38,000 children lost their parents, including 1,600
children who lost
both parents. Many children have experienced concentration
camps, and/or exposure to various forms of torture and rape, with lasting
traumatic consequences.
- According
to data from the report of Republika Srpska, around 18,000 children were
killed, 30,000 were wounded, 3,500 disabled, 10,000
were left without
parental care, and around 12,000 children were born as refugees.
- On
the basis of data from the study “Strategy of Spatial Planning of
Federation BiH - Phase I”, economic damage, including
lost earnings, was
assessed to be US$ 5070 billion. Property damage was assessed by the World
Bank at US$ 1520 billion. During
the war, industrial production was only
5 per cent of the prewar level.
- Bosnia
and Herzegovina maintains its legal continuity as a State under international
law, with its internal structure modified in
accordance with the Constitution of
Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Dayton Agreement. Bosnia and Herzegovina is
defined as a complex democratic State. It is a member
of the United Nations
with internationally recognized borders, and it consists of two Entities: the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
and the Republika Srpska. The
Federation of BiH constitutes 51 per cent of the territory and the
Republika Srpska 49 per cent.
The Federation of BiH is
administratively divided into 10 cantons. These cantons are divided into a
total of 84 municipalities.
Republika Srpska is administratively divided into
63 municipalities. Brčko town is a separate administrative unit, organized
as a District.
- Under
the new system, Bosnia and Herzegovina has a Parliamentary Assembly, a
threemember Presidency and a Council of Ministers. The
equality of peoples is
guaranteed by the Dayton Agreement and basic elements of unified authority are
established. The following
areas fall under the authority of institutions of
BiH: foreign affairs, foreign trade and economic relations, civil affairs and
communications, monetary policy, the State Treasury, European integration,
refugees and protection of human rights.
- The
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is constituted on the basis of the
Washington Agreement signed in 1994, and in accordance
with the BiH
Constitution. Bosniaks and Croats represent its constituent peoples together
with others, and are the citizens of the Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
The Republika Srpska, according to its Constitution, is the State of the Serb
people and all its citizens, within the borders defined by the Dayton Agreement.
The Constitutional Court
of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued a decision
according to which all three peoples are constituent in the whole territory of
Bosnia
and Herzegovina; under this decision, the Entities are now obliged to
harmonize their Constitutions with the BiH Constitution.
- When
the war ended in December 1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina entered a stage of social
and economical transition, comprising two Entities:
the Federation of Bosnia
and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska, with their respective legislative and
judicial systems. Since
this moment, the first steps were taken to create the
necessary conditions for reintegration of the entire BiH area. This was done
with the assistance of the international community, first of all with assistance
of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
During this process,
governmental and nongovernmental humanitarian organizations have played
significant roles, and they have improved
this process through their efforts and
have contributed considerably to the realization of this process.
II. GENERAL MEASURES OF APPLICATION (arts. 4, 42 and
44)
Measures taken to harmonize legislation in accordance with the
Convention
- The
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is an integral part of the
BiH Constitution (Annex 1) and is incorporated into the legislation of Bosnia
and Herzegovina. In this way, the right to full and harmonized development
is
guaranteed for each child. Accordingly, a basic legal framework exists for the
application of all of the Convention’s provisions.
- Under
the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Constitutions of the
Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska, all rights and freedoms are guaranteed
for all BiH citizens, especially for children, regardless of race, colour of
skin, sex, language, religion, political or other beliefs,
ethnic or social
background, property, birth, education, social status or any other
characteristics. In the Entity Constitutions,
the constitutional regulation of
the equality of all people is especially emphasized pursuant to article 2 of the
Convention on the
Rights of the Child.
- It
is evident that Bosnia and Herzegovina is still in a process of social
restoration, above all in a process of economic reconstruction
and
consolidation. BiH is also in a process of building a new legal framework,
which is to be harmonized with European standards
and international conventions.
The problem of inefficient functioning of authority structures is still present
as a result of an
uneconomic organization of government - there are five levels
of government in the Federation of BiH (FBiH) and four in the Republika
Srpska
(RS).
- Due
to the length of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the social and economic
situation in the postwar period, serious challenges
still exist for families and
competent Entity institutions, especially in health, educational and social
welfare institutions, in
implementing the provisions on the best interest of the
child to the extent possible (in accordance with article 3 of the Convention).
This is equally true for the right to life, survival and development (in
accordance with article 6 of the Convention) and respect
for the child’s
opinions (in accordance with article 12 of the Convention).
- Since
this is the first report on the rights of the child in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
the attention of the Committee on the Rights
of the Child needs to be drawn to
the difficult position of both Entities regarding the realization of the rights
and status of children,
especially of the basic rights to life, survival and
development.
- Despite
all efforts by authorities, services, individuals and families to fulfil these
rights in the most appropriate way, pursuant
to the Convention on the Rights of
the Child, the children of Bosnia and Herzegovina have for a long time been in a
disadvantaged
position compared to children in other States parties to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child. It can be claimed with certainty
that
the war and the postwar economic situation have negatively affected the children
of Bosnia and Herzegovina over the last 10
years, in particular their prospects
for development. There can be no doubt that this report could have been
considerably different
were the situation in the country normal, or had the
country been given the chance, at least after signing the Convention, to develop
normally and to create preconditions for its own successful development. Had
BiH been given this chance, it could have provided
conditions for development
and progress in the field of children’s rights and development in every
other respect.
- The
process of creating a legal framework has not yet been completed. Currently,
Entity Constitutions are being harmonized with the
BiH Constitution in
accordance with the Constituent Peoples’ Decision of the Constitutional
Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is expected
that the assistance of the
international community will enable a successful continuation
- of
the efforts to speed up the implementation and development of measures for
consistent respect of the Constitution and the law and, naturally, of the
conventions incorporated within the highest legal act of the country.
Activities for the harmonization
of existing laws and the adoption of new laws
are also continuous, with the purpose of a final policy determination concerning
families
and children and better and more efficient protection of their
rights.
- New
institutions in the legal system of BiH that are important for the protection of
rights and freedoms, and by extension the protection
of children’s rights,
are the institutions of the BiH Ombudsman, the FBiH and RS Ombudsmen, the
Federation Court for Human
Rights and the RS Council for Human Rights.
- So
far, no working groups or mechanisms for implementation and monitoring of the
Convention’s application have been established
at the State level.
However, it is encouraging that the Ministry for Human Rights has been
established in the BiH Council of Ministers.
In this way the necessary
structures are finally being established for coordination and followup at the
highest level of all activities
that are important for the application and the
monitoring of the application of this and other conventions.
- The
implementation of the Convention and the supervision of its application is
presently being carried out by relevant Entity ministries
and cantonal
ministries (ministries for health, labour and social policy, education, culture,
justice and administration, etc.).
Given the way the State is organized,
particular portfolios influence the application of regulations and the
development of measures
for the protection of children. In the period to come,
better coordination and unification of the process of the Convention’s
application should be established.
- Unfortunately,
at the Entity level, specialized institutions dealing with children’s
issues that would offer maximum protection
for children in civil and criminal
proceedings either do not exist or are merely in the process of being
established.
- A
child who has not acquired full legal competency is legally liable to the extent
that his/her legal competency is recognized. Otherwise,
the child will be
represented in court by a legal representative. This can be one of the parents,
a guardian or an adopter. If
in court proceedings the interests of the child
and those of the parent who is representing the child by law diverge, the
guardianship
authority will appoint a special guardian to represent the
child’s interests.
- The
law also takes care of the interests of the child in cases of extension of
parental rights, which happens in cases when the child
cannot take care of
himself/herself and his/her rights and interests (although he/she is of
age).
- The
best interest of the child in the field of education is reflected in the fact
that the law guarantees compulsory and free elementary
education for all
children under equal conditions. The law also guarantees free access to
secondary education, which is basically
free in public schools, and education at
faculties and twoyear postsecondary schools based on achievements in previous
education
and results of qualifying exams.
- With
the assistance of targeted projects and activities of nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs), different social activities are organized
for further
promotion of the Convention. Among other things, different brochures and
posters have been printed in the languages
of BiH peoples whose contents aim to
inform adults and children about the principles of the Convention; its
provisions and requirements;
education of teachers, social welfare workers and
the police, etc. A basic criticism of such activities would be their
noncoordinated
character, which has resulted in limited achievements so
far.
- The
most important obstacle to wider and more coordinated action which should be
mentioned here is the limited financial resources
of the State and the Entities,
which at present are directed towards meeting the basic social needs of the
entire population. Even
this aim is not fully achieved and there is very little
room for planning and implementation of assistance activities that target
children directly.
III. DEFINITION OF THE CHILD (art. 1)
- In
the legal system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a person under the age of 14 has the
legal status of a child. Up to the age of 18,
a person has the status of a
minor. A person who has reached the age of 18 becomes an adult and acquires
full legal competency.
According to the provisions of the Family Law, on that
date the right of a legal representative (parents, adopter or guardian) to
represent the child ceases.
- A
physical person acquires legal competency at birth, in other words at separation
from the mother’s womb if born alive. According
to legal provisions on
inheritance, a conceived child is to be considered a born child at the moment of
opening inheritance documents,
under the condition that the child is born alive
later on. A conceived child may have an appointed guardian who will take care
of
the child’s rights if the interests of the parents are in conflict with
the interests of the unborn child. Otherwise, one
of the parents takes care of
the child’s rights.
- Parents
have the primary obligation to support minors and in fulfilling this obligation,
they have to use all their capabilities.
If the child attends regular school,
parents are obliged to provide him or her with means of living according to
their capabilities,
even after the child has become an adult. The longest
period of this support is up to the age of 26 years, if regular education
is not
finished during that period due to warranted reasons. In instances where the
child is of age but is incapable of working
due to illness or physical or
psychological disadvantages and does not have sufficient means for living, or
these means cannot be
provided from the child’s property, the parents are
obliged to support the child as long as this incapacity lasts.
- Minors
may possess property acquired through work, by inheritance, as a gift or on some
other legal basis. The property, except for
property the minor has acquired
through work, will be managed by the parents of the minor in his/her interest
until he/she becomes
an adult. Parents may use income obtained on the basis of
a minor’s property primarily for the child’s support, upbringing
and
education.
- According
to the provisions of Family Law, a person may not enter into marriage before the
age of 18. However, if reasons justify
it, a court may in a special procedure
allow a minor older than 16 to enter into marriage if it finds that this person
(regardless
of sex) is physically and psychologically capable of carrying out
the rights and duties resulting from marriage. In this case, the
opinion of the
parents of the minor, of the guardianship authority and of health organizations
will be heard during the court procedure.
The concerned minor, rather than
his/her legal representative, will submit the request to enter into marriage to
the court.
- There
are several other cases when a minor may act in his/her name without agreement
of his/her legal representative. These include
name changes, accepting to be
adopted, recognizing paternity and drafting a will. According to current legal
regulations, all children
are obliged to attend elementary school for eight
years.
- The
right to vote is (under the applicable legislation) obtained at the age of 18.
BiH criminal legislation does not foresee the
death sentence for any citizen
and, accordingly, not for children either. Criminal legislation foresees the
institution of juvenile
judges.
- Punitive
measures cannot be imposed on a minor who has not reached the age of 14
(i.e. a child). Minors who were between 14 and 16
years of age at the time
when the criminal act was committed may receive only corrective measures. The
purpose of educational measures
and juvenile prison sentences is to ensure,
through protection and assistance provided to juvenile perpetrators of offences,
their
upbringing, re-education and proper development, by making them
professionally capable and by developing their basic sense of responsibility.
- Juvenile
offenders will, as a rule, serve a prison sentence separated from adults. In
instances of longterm detention of a juvenile,
the court may decide to place the
juvenile together with adults who do not exercise a negative influence on
him/her. If a juvenile
offender attends school, he/she will be provided with
the opportunity to attend school regularly during the time of serving the
sentence,
to read educational literature, to do homework, etc.
- BiH
criminal legislation prohibits serving alcohol to children or minors under the
age of 16 or providing them with access to gambling
houses.
- In
the legal system of the FBiH, a child is a person under the age of 14 and
punitive measures cannot be applied to him/her. Minor
status lasts until the
age of 18 is reached. After that, the status of adult is obtained, as well as
full legal competency.
- The
legal status of children and minors in the Republika Srpska is clearly defined
in criminal, substantive and procedural law. There
are two categories:
children or minors in the narrow sense, defined as persons under the age of 14,
and persons from the age of
14 to the age of 18 years. There are two age groups
defined within the category of minor: younger minors - between the age of 14
and 16, and older minors from 16 to 18 years.
- All
children are entitled to social and health insurance until the age of 15; if
they attend regular school this insurance is provided
until their education is
completed. There are difficulties with the realization of this right because
this insurance is provided
under the condition that the
- child’s
parents are regular financial insurance contributors. Regretfully, a large
number of parents are without employment,
and their contributions, as a rule,
are not paid to the funds, which means that they do not obtain free protection
for their children.
- Minors
are allowed to work only when they reach the age of 15, but they are not allowed
to work in dangerous occupations, or in occupations
with difficult conditions.
Minors cannot be drafted or mobilized as conscripts before the age of 18.
- Bosnia
and Herzegovina is a signatory to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the
Rights of the Child on the involvement of
children in armed conflict.
IV. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
A. Non-discrimination (art. 2)
- According
to the Constitutions of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the
Republika Srpska, one of the fundamental principles
is the prohibition of any
discrimination on the basis of race, colour of skin, sex, language, religion,
political or other beliefs,
ethnic or social background.
- In
both Entities, constitutional principles are protected by appropriate criminal
laws. First of all, these laws include the right
to life, survival and
development, respect for the personality and opinion of the child and his/her
best interest.
- Children
born out of wedlock have the same rights as children born within a marriage.
However, if a child is born out of wedlock
it is necessary to initiate a
procedure for paternity to be confirmed. As for a child older than 16, his/her
agreement is needed
for recognition of paternity.
- There
are cases of violations of children’s rights that may be considered
discrimination of certain groups of children on ground
of ethnicity or religion;
this is naturally a result of the recent war. The most frequent cases are
related to preventing children
from access to school facilities that were
previously used for the education of children and the imposition of religious
instruction
classes on children born in mixed marriages, etc.
B. The best interests of the child (art. 6)
- This
principle existed previously in the legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and
has continuously been respected in the various
aspects of life, especially in
court decisions and in administrative proceedings. During adoption procedures
the interest of the
child is a priority consideration. The majority of laws in
FBiH and RS are guided by the best interests of the child. The only
limiting
factor for the application of regulations is the limited financial resources of
society, and the resulting limited control
over the application of regulations
and laws in proceedings before the authorities.
- Within
the context of childcare, family planning, comprehensive upbringing and
development of children, the Entities are in agreement
in their intention to
create special conditions for providing advice to parents regarding all
important issues related to parental
rights and duties. The intention of local
and Entity authorities to improve the situation in this regard is encouraging.
C. Right to life, survival and development (art. 6, para.
1)
- One
of the basic principles guaranteed by the Constitutions is the principle of the
right to life. During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
contrary to all
provisions and laws, this was the very principle that was most violated, and not
even children were spared.
- According
to applicable laws in the Entities, physical harassment and punishment of
children is forbidden. Such acts are punishable
under the existing laws, but
the system of detection and prevention of such acts is not sufficiently
developed.
- Children
who are mentally and physically neglected are entitled to special protection and
care. Children are neither to be offered
a job contrary to the law nor to be
forced to perform work that could be harmful to their development.
- There
are basic elements of protecting the proclaimed rights, but the social status of
the family in Bosnia and Herzegovina (with
a large number of poor and
impoverished families) is the most serious problem at this moment. The number
of children neglected with
regard to education has evidently increased, as has
the number of children inclined to delinquency. The police bodies have
initiated
activities to achieve better social care, especially in educational
institutions, through the introduction of measures to prevent
juvenile
delinquency.
- Some
Entity authorities have registered different acts that point to violations of
children’s rights. However, data at State
level on the number of minor
and child victims of criminal offences are presently incomplete. In the period
to come, it will be
necessary to launch unified monitoring of such data, which
should be done within the Bosnia and Herzegovina Agency for
Statistics.
D. Respect for the views of the child (art. 12)
- The
Constitution of BiH and the Entity Constitutions guarantee freedom of opinion
and expression for every child, as well as for all citizens. This
principle is
particularly applied in the case of parental divorce: the opinion of the child
is respected concerning which parent
the child wants to live with if he/she is
capable of expressing this wish. As previously mentioned, the wish of a minor
is also
respected concerning recognition of paternity when the minor reaches the
age of 16.
- A
person above the age of 16 is allowed to write a will if he/she is capable of
exercising due judgement. The opinion of a child
above 10 is important in cases
of adoption. In the educational process, progress is evident in increased
possibilities for children
to express their opinion about education, allowing
them to exercise more influence over it.
V. CIVIL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
- The
freedoms and rights of citizens defined by the Constitution of Bosnia and
Herzegovina and the Constitutions of its Entities are based on standards
recognized by the United Nations. They are
of a universal nature, and clear
references are made to children’s rights in the chapters. This means that
the largest number
of legal provisions defining particular rights of the child
are based on provisions enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of
the Child.
This primarily refers to the right to life; the right to identity, nationality,
name and family relations; the right
to freedom of expression; the right to
express opinions on all issues related to the child; the right to freedom of
association;
the right to education; the right to cultural identity, the right
to religion; the right to use one’s own language; the right
to special
protection in cases of temporary or permanent separation from the family; the
right to legal and other forms of assistance;
and the right to dignity and
privacy.
- Many
rights and freedoms of the children of Bosnia and Herzegovina are regulated by
legal provisions based on the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, and in some
cases they even go beyond the Convention. Both Entities, depending on their
conditions, have regulated
the rights of children, starting from the right to
health care, the right to education, the right to parental care, the right to
participate in cultural life and art, the right to be protected from economic
exploitation, the right to be free from any work which
could be harmful to the
child’s physical, psychological, moral or social development. This
includes issues related to the
rights of a child separated from one or both
parents, as well as to the rights of disabled and handicapped children and the
care
they are entitled to. The identity and the name of a child are protected,
as is the right not to be abused or subjected to cruel
or inhuman
treatment.
- Bosnia
and Herzegovina is a signatory to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the
Rights of the Child on the sale of children,
child prostitution and child
pornography.
- The
level of public information is not satisfactory in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in
particular targeted actions to bring information
closer and present it to
children. No efficient mechanisms have yet been introduced to defend children
from the harmful influence
of the media (violence, pornography), and organized
activities to protect children in this regard have just begun. Some initiatives
have been launched by the media, but the necessary common measures have not been
developed or proposed with regard to this issue
at the Entity or State level.
A. Name and citizenship (art. 7)
- Each
person has the right to a name; correspondingly, each person is obliged to use
his/her name. A personal name is acquired by
registration in the birth
register, and it consists of a personal name and a family name. A child’s
personal name is given
by his/her parents within the deadline prescribed by the
law (60 days). In case the parents do not agree on a child’s name,
the
name will be given by a relevant guardianship authority.
- A
child receives the family name of one or both of his/her parents. Should a
change in the status of the child occur (recognition
of paternity, establishment
or denial of paternity or
- maternity),
a new name may be given within two years of the change of the status. However,
should a new name be given to a child
older than 10, it is necessary to get
his/her consent. The same applies in the case of adoption, should there be a
change of family
name.
- The
birth register records the child’s first name and family name, gender,
exact place of birth, citizenship, and details about
his/her parents.
- The
obligation to register the birth of a child depends on the place of birth. If a
child is born in a medical institution, this
institution is obliged to register
the birth within 15 days. If a child is born outside a medical institution, the
birth is registered
by the child’s father, or by the mother if she is able
to do it, or by a person authorized by the parents. If a child is stillborn,
the obligation to register the birth is still valid. This clause protects the
child’s identity.
B. Preservation of identity (art. 8)
- This
principle is protected in the criminal legislation of BiH by sanctions, should
any change of the family status of a child occur.
- With
the aim of preserving the child’s identity, the Family Law stipulates that
the procedure of adoption is closed to the public
and the data contained in the
protocol on adoption are confidential and accessible only to the adopter and the
adoptee, if he/she
has reached the age of 16.
- There
are flaws in the medical legal regulations, which exclude the establishment of
paternity for a child conceived artificially.
These children are, at the very
beginning of their lives, unable to have their full identity established, but
this issue enters
the sphere of ethics and morality.
C. Freedom of expression (art. 13)
- Freedom
of expression and thought is guaranteed by the Constitution of BiH. Freedom of
expression and thought can be restricted only in the case of protecting the
freedom and the rights of others,
and in the case of protecting the legal order
and public morality and health. The criminal law thus foresees sanctions for
the revelation
of State and military secrets, and for the purpose of protecting
the vital interests of the State (political, economic and military).
D. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion (art.
14)
- Under
the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, all citizens have equal rights and
freedoms regardless of their religion. The Constitution guarantees freedom of
thought, expression and thinking, i.e. freedom of conscience and religion, and
freedom of private and public
practice of religious or other beliefs. Not all
children in BiH have the freedom to practise their religion, nor do all have a
possibility
to speak or study in their mother tongue.
- In
Bosnia and Herzegovina, the major monotheistic religions - Islam, Catholicism,
Orthodoxy, Judaism - as well as other smaller religious
communities and sects
have been present for centuries. These religions have developed a spirit of
religious tolerance and coexistence,
- which
is best proved in the case of Sarajevo, where the places of worship of all these
religions are located within 500 metres of
one another. They have existed and
functioned for centuries: the Islamic Bey’s mosque, the Catholic
cathedral, the Orthodox
church and the Jewish synagogue. There were similar
examples in many cities in BiH before 1992.
- During
crisis periods through history, especially during wartime, religion has been
abused for political purposes and has been one
of the factors of nationalist
euphoria, intolerance, human tragedies, and a cause of suffering of children
only because they were
of a different religious affiliation. This was also the
case in the last war.
- The
Constitution of the Federation of BiH grants the right to the cantons to pass
and implement laws. This means that they are authorized to pass
curricula and
programmes. However, even though the majority of cantons have passed their own
laws on elementary and secondary schools,
almost all still apply the curriculum
and programme for elementary schools which was adopted by a decision of the
Ministry of Education,
Science, Culture and Sports in the Federation on 15 July
1994. In the section “Structure of Educational Activity”, this
curriculum envisages an optional subject called religious instruction. The
curriculum for religious instruction has been adopted
by the religious
communities, was approved by the Federation Minister of Education, Science,
Culture and Sports, and is implemented
by schools in the same way as for any
other subject. Students can voluntarily select this subject, and once they have
selected it,
they are obliged to attend it. Students get marks for this subject
and those marks, except the fail mark, are entered into the students’
registers and certificates. The marks obtained for religious instruction do not
have any influence on the overall success of students
at school. The same rules
apply within the curriculum for secondary schools.
- In
Una-Sana and Sarajevo cantons, under the Elementary School Law, religious
instruction is a compulsory subject for all students.
- In
accordance with the Constitution and the law, parents have a special role and
importance in the upbringing of their children, and they are free to choose
their child’s
religious affiliation and upbringing (religious or
atheistic), i.e. they take the decision whether or not their child will attend
religious instruction.
- Because
of the enormous devastation of religious sites during the war, many believers,
including children, are not able to fully practise
their religion.
E. Freedom of association and peaceful assembly (art.
15)
- In
the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (art. II. 3.i), all citizens are
guaranteed the right to freedom of association and peaceful assembly,
which also
applies to children. The establishment and work of civil associations is
closely elaborated in the Law on Civil Associations
and in the Law on
Humanitarian Activities and Humanitarian Organizations, which regulates the work
of children’s organizations
and associations.
- Children’s
organizations and associations, and organizations providing help to children by
addressing their various needs and
interests, can be divided into local (the
most numerous group, organized at the level of school, local community,
municipality),
regional (within the cantons) and federal. Grouped by their
programmes, the cultural-educational, sportsrecreational, humanitarian,
and
entertainment associations are the most numerous. There are various clubs in
schools for fine arts, literature, drama, folklore,
music; sports societies for
football, basketball, volleyball, karate, athletics, mountaineering, rifle
shooting; clubs for technology,
computers, foreign languages; child forums,
learning about democracy and the rights of the child, and others.
- Annual
competitions of children in various fields of creative work are organized at the
level of municipalities, cantons and the Federation,
in which children’s
organizations and associations participate actively. The most popular are those
in mathematics, physics,
computers, technology, various sports, fine arts
exhibitions, excursions, summer camps, visits to other children in the country
and
abroad, studying the basics of democracy and the rights of the child,
etc.
- Basic
problems in the work of children’s organizations are education of people
who work with children in the use of modern methods,
equipment and
financing. For the time being, donors and sponsors are not encouraged to
support the activities of these organizations
and associations, due to the
lack of an adequate taxation policy, which should be changed.
F. Protection of privacy (art. 16)
- The
principle of privacy, one of the fundamental democratic principles, is regulated
by the criminal law, which prescribes sanctions
for any violation of the
non-violability of the privacy of the household and for unlawful search.
Concerning protection of privacy
with the aim of maintaining the integrity of a
child’s personality, family legislation stipulates that adoption
procedures,
as well as procedures for the establishment or denial of paternity
or maternity, are closed to the public.
G. Access to appropriate information (art. 17)
- According
to the Constitution of BiH and the Dayton Agreement, legal regulation in the
domain of information falls under the authority of the cantons. According
to
information available so far, certain cantons (Sarajevo, Tuzla-Podrinje,
Una-Sana) have already adopted laws on media/laws on
public information.
Other cantons are in the process of drafting such laws, whereas the Federation
of BiH still uses as its framework
the Law on Mass Media adopted in 1990.
The passing of a new Law on Public Information (Law on Media) at the Federation
level presumes
the transition of authority from a canton to the Federation,
which is probable and a desirable model.
- The
public media register lists only two radio stations exclusively intended for
children and youth, and 35 youth newspapers and magazines.
Radio stations in
BiH have shows or blocks of broadcasts of an educational and entertaining
character intended for children and
youth within their programmes, which
greatly contribute to the upbringing and education of children.
VI. FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND ALTERNATIVE CARE
- The
provisions of the Entity Constitutions, as well as the relevant legal acts in
this field, proceed exclusively from the interests
of the child. They regulate
the position of children in society and the obligations of the State, Entities
and family with regard
to children. Through legal acts, the Entities create
material, educational, social, cultural and other preconditions for children
to
lead a dignified life and for parents to provide the attention and care required
to allow their children a full and harmonious
life.
- The
applicable legal provisions in this field oblige the competent institutions and
the family to provide protection for all children,
both healthy and disabled
(mentally or physically handicapped), including those that are socially
neglected and those without parents
or without parental care and
guardianship.
- The
regulations stress the obligations, rights and responsibilities of parents.
Parents have to take care of the rights of their
children, their life and
health, their upbringing and education and all other interests. The realization
of these rights and obligations,
particularly regarding minor children, is made
possible through proper upbringing and education. In this way, the child
becomes
capable of satisfying his/her needs him/herself in most cases, and by
consequence supervision and care by parents of their child
will be
minimized.
- According
to the family laws in both Entities, parents exercise their parental rights by
consent, regardless of whether the children
are born in wedlock, out of wedlock,
or are adopted.
- The
Family Law provides for a measure to remove a child from parents who are
negligent in raising their child, especially in cases
when the upbringing of the
child has become dysfunctional. According to the Law, in situations in which
parents do not exercise
their parental right, this right will be exercised by
the guardianship authority.
- In
principle, a child’s protection and upbringing is in the first place
entrusted to the parents, because protection, upbringing
and support of the
child is not only a duty, but also a privilege of parents. This is why the
children are not to be entrusted to
a third person or to an institution if this
is not warranted.
The family is irreplaceable in the childcare system. Parents are obliged to
raise and support their minor children, to send them
to school and set them on
the right track, so that the child receives a successful and independent start
in life. It is regulated
by law that, apart from biological parents,
stepfathers and stepmothers are also obliged to support minor children if these
children
do not have parents or if the parents are unable to do
it.
- Society,
for its part, helps and encourages the family to raise and educate the child.
This is done first of all through guaranteeing
certain rights such as the
parental right to child allowance for support of children; the organization of
kindergartens and pre-schools;
provision of foreign language education;
organization of cultural events, etc. Special care is provided for children
without parents,
for children of single parents and for children with
developmental disabilities. For children with developmental disabilities
society
provides special conditions and experts who will take care of their
psychological and physical development.
- Even
though conditions were very difficult both during and after the war, the
relevant data suggest that around 98 per cent of children
born in BiH are
registered in birth registries up to the age of 5 (Study: Examination of
progress in the achievement of goals of
the World Summit for Children through
multiple indicators for FBiH and RS). Data also indicate that no significant
differences exist
with regard to sex, age, area (urban or rural), or
parents’ education.
For living conditions of children without parental care, data indicate that in
total 93 per cent of BiH children live with both of
their parents
from birth up to the age of 14, while children who do not live with their
biological parents constitute less than 1
per cent. Almost 5 per cent
of children below the age of 14 do not have both parents.
- Less
than 1 per cent of children between 5 and 14 are engaged in paid work; 6 per
cent of them are engaged in some form of unpaid
work for a person outside the
family household. Some 55 per cent of all children are engaged in
housework, for example, working
in the kitchen, fetching water, taking care of
younger brothers and sisters. Almost no children do difficult work for more
than
four hours a day.
- The
first reports from FBiH and RS, which are signatories to the Agreement on Human
Rights, state that the highest levels of internationally
recognized human rights
and basic freedoms are ensured throughout their jurisdiction. This refers first
of all to the preservation
of identity, name and citizenship, freedom of
expression, freedom of opinion, conscience and religion, freedom of association
and
peaceful assembly, protection of privacy, protection from torture, abuse and
other cruelties, and protection from inhuman and humiliating
treatment or
punishment.
A. Parental guidance (art. 5)
- According
to the clauses of the Family Law, parental rights are exercised by parents,
primarily in the interest of children. These
rights and responsibilities are
personal and absolute. Parental rights consist of the following: protecting
their children and
taking care of their life and health; supporting their
children in the manner prescribed by the law; taking care of their education;
representing their children; maintaining personal contacts with the children who
are not living with the given parent; and determining
the personal names of
their children. These rights and responsibilities are exercised by parents with
a view to building the capacity
of the child to satisfy his/her physiological,
hygienic, health and social needs, in a manner so that parental supervision and
care
are gradually reduced.
- In
the interest of family planning and in order to enable children to receive a
comprehensive education, the State creates conditions
for providing counsel to
parents about all important issues pertaining to their parental rights and
responsibilities. The Law on
Social Welfare stipulates that a Centre for Social
Work may organize the operation of a counselling office for issues of marriage,
family and upbringing of minors.
B. Parental responsibility (art. 18, paras. 1-2)
- Raising
a child and satisfying his/her fundamental needs is above all the responsibility
of the parents. According to the Family
Law, parental rights are exercised by
parents by consent and together, regardless of whether the children were born in
wedlock, out
of wedlock, or were adopted. Parental rights are exercised in the
interest of children from the moment of conception of a child
to adulthood, and
the law stipulates that parental rights can be extended into the child’s
adulthood if the child, due to physical
or mental impairments, is not capable of
taking care of himself/herself or his/her rights and interests.
- Parental
rights belong to one parent only and are performed by this parent in cases when
the other parent dies or is pronounced dead,
or if he/she is unable to perform
his/her parental rights, if he/she disappeared or his/her residence is unknown,
or if, by a court
decision in extrajudiciary proceedings his/her parental right
has been revoked.
- Parents
cannot waive their parental rights, but the rights may be revoked under certain
conditions regulated in the law.
- Regardless
of whether the parents are married or not, if they live separately, they will
agree on where the child is to remain for
care and upbringing. If they cannot
agree, or if their agreement does not follow the best interest of the child, a
decision on this
matter will be taken by the relevant guardian authority. When
taking a decision, the guardianship authority will examine all circumstances
of
both parents, and will find the most favourable solution regardless of any
agreement between the parents. The guardian authority,
before taking a
decision, is also obliged to take into account the wishes of the child if the
child is capable of expressing them.
- By
entrusting a child to care and upbringing with one parent, the parental right of
the other parent does not terminate. He/she will
reserve his/her parental right
and he/she has the right and responsibility to support the child and maintain
personal contacts with
him/her. He/she also has a possibility, personally or
through the guardianship authority, to influence the actions and measures
taken
by the parent with whom the child resides.
- Children
must be primarily entrusted for care and upbringing to the parents, since taking
care of the protection, upbringing and raising
of a child is not only a
responsibility but also a right of the parents. Therefore, these rights cannot
be entrusted to a third
person or an institution without warranted reasons.
- BiH
has established a system of rendering assistance to parents in the exercise of
their responsibilities in raising a child.
- The
Law on Employment Relations stipulates that during pregnancy and delivery, a
female employee has the right to maternity leave
of up to one continuous year.
The draft Law on Labour stipulates that for twins, the third and every next
child, a woman has the
right to maternity leave for up to 18 continuous months.
If a female employee does not use the 28 days of leave before delivery
(which
she is obliged to take), for reasons beyond her control, she can use these days
after delivery.
- The
father of the child can use the remainder of the maternity leave in case of the
death of the mother-employee, in case the mother
deserts the child, or in case
the mother is not able to take care of their child. This right may also be
exercised by an adopter,
or a person who takes care of the child, in case of the
death of both parents, in case the parents desert the child, or in case they
are
not able to take care of their child.
- After
maternity leave further protection of the child is foreseen for the next three
years.
- One
of the parents of a child of up to 1 year of age has the right to work half time
upon request. After the child’s first
birthday, a female employee has the
right to work half time until the child is 3 years of age if, according to the
opinion of a relevant
medical authority, the child’s health condition
requires special medical care, or in other cases stipulated by law. There
is
also a possibility to prescribe in a general regulation or collective contract
that women may take a leave of absence up to the
child’s third year of
age.
- According
to the draft Labour Law, upon the expiry of maternity leave the mother has the
right to work half time; for twins, for her
third and for every next child she
has the right to work half time up to the child’s second birthday. If a
woman during this
period works full time, the father is entitled to use this
right.
- Should
the child need enhanced medical care, one of the parents has the right to work
half time up to the child’s third year
of age. This right is extended to
the adopter of the child as well.
- Thus,
the draft Labour Law gives greater rights to parents who have more children than
do the present legislative acts.
- The
applicable Employment Law also stipulates that one of the parents of a seriously
disabled child has the right to work half time
if he/she is a single parent, or
if both parents are employed, provided that the child is not given to an
institution for social-medical
care, and that the recommendation of the relevant
commission for disabled persons is obtained.
- The
Law on Basic Employment Rights stipulates that a woman with a child under 2
years of age should not work overtime or at night.
- A
single parent who has a child younger than 7 years of age, or a seriously
disabled child, may work overtime or at night only based
on his/her written
consent.
- The
Law on Social Welfare stipulates rendering assistance (financial support,
training for life and work, commitment to social welfare
institutions, home
care, day-care assistance) to children in need of social protection. This group
includes:
- − Children
deprived of parental care;
- − Children
impaired in their physical and psychological development;
- − Children
neglected in their upbringing;
- − Children
whose development is impaired by family circumstances.
The
law calls for assistance to parents who do not have sufficient financial
resources for raising their children. However, according
to data, it is evident
that little has been done regarding this issue due to lack of legislation and
financial resources.
- With
the aim of protecting children and assisting the family, the Law on Child Care
introduces the right to a one-off financial payment
for a newborn’s
layette. However, due to the lack of financial resources for the realization of
this right, as well other
rights stipulated by this law, this right is
impossible to exercise.
- Pre-school
education is of great educational and social importance, especially in cases
where the mother is employed. Due to the
underdevelopment of this level of
education and a small number of institutions, the priority in enrolment is given
to children if
both their parents are employed, to children of single parents,
and to children of low financial status.
C. Separation from parents (art. 9)
- The
Family Law stipulates that children have the right to live together with their
parents. Exceptions to this are foreseen in the
best interest of the child. If
the interests of the child so require, parents can entrust their child for
protection and upbringing
to third persons or to an appropriate institution.
The third persons can be relatives of the child who can provide upbringing or
protection, with or without remuneration, or persons who are related to the
child. The interest of the child because of which the
child is entrusted to a
third person can be better living conditions for a sick child, or proximity to
school or a medical institution.
Parents can also entrust their child to an
institution for social or medical care in order to provide the child with
medical or
any other care, upbringing or training for work. This is necessary
if the child’s development is impaired by family circumstances
(parents
who, due to dysfunctional family relations or for other reasons, are not in a
position to provide the child with normal
conditions for his/her proper
upbringing and physical and psychological development). Entrusting a child for
protection, upbringing
and education to a third person or a relevant institution
is legally effective only if the guardianship authority has granted its
approval.
- In
cases where the parental right has been revoked in the interest of the child,
the parents are excluded from the possibility of
living together with their
child. If there is no court ruling on entrusting a child and the parents have
neglected their child’s
upbringing, or if his/her upbringing has become
dysfunctional, the guardian authority may remove the child and entrust it for
care
and upbringing to a third person, or to an appropriate institution. In
this case too, in the interest of the child, she/he will
be separated from the
parents.
- If
the parents live apart and the child is entrusted to one of them, or if one
sibling is entrusted to the father and the other to
the mother, to a third
person or to an institution, or if the parental right of a parent has been
revoked, the parent with whom the
child does not live has the right and
responsibility to maintain personal contacts with his/her child. Parents should
agree on the
modality of maintaining personal contacts with the child (visits
and similar). Should the parents not be able to come to such an
agreement, or
should it not be in the interest of the child, the guardianship authority will
take a decision. Guided by the interests
of the child, the guardianship
authority may regulate the modality of parents’ personal contacts with
their children if changed
circumstances so
require.
- The
right and responsibility of the parent with whom a child does not live to
maintain personal contacts with the child are not unlimited.
Since the State
ensures special care for the purpose of achieving these objectives, maintaining
personal contacts between parents
and their children may be limited or
prohibited with a view to protecting the child’s personality or his/her
interests.
- In
proceedings against juveniles, the guardianship authority has the rights and
responsibilities stipulated by the Law on Criminal
Proceedings. In proceedings
against juveniles, the guardianship authority has the right and responsibility
to be familiarized with
the course of the proceedings, and to make proposals and
point to facts and evidence during the proceedings that are of importance
for
reaching an appropriate decision. The Public Prosecutor is obliged to inform
the guardianship authority about the institution
of any court proceedings
against a juvenile.
- The
court may order certain corrective recommendations, corrective measures, or even
certain security measures against a juvenile
perpetrator of an offence. The
court may exceptionally sentence an older juvenile to prison. A juvenile
perpetrator of an offence
may otherwise be sentenced to corrective measures.
Corrective measures can be: personal apology to the injured party; damage
compensation
for the injured party; regular school attendance; voluntary work
for a humanitarian or local community; accepting an appropriate
job; placement
in another family, home, or in an institution; treatment in an appropriate
medical institution; visits to corrective,
educational, psychological and other
counselling centres; education in the field of traffic regulations; court
reprimand: commitment
to a disciplinary centre for juveniles; measures of
enhanced supervision (by parents, adopter or guardian, or other family, or by
a
relevant body for social care) or institutional measures (commitment to a
corrective institution, correctional facility or other
institution for
training).
- In
the procedure preceding the ruling on corrective measures, the guardianship
authority has significant rights and responsibilities.
These rights and
responsibilities do not cease upon the ruling on corrective measures against a
juvenile perpetrator of an offence.
The guardianship authority sees to the
enforcement of the corrective measure or any other measure ruled by the court or
another
relevant authority.
- The
war in Bosnia and Herzegovina caused a problem that previously did not exist,
which is the great number of divorces of spouses
belonging to different
ethnicities. This has the most adverse effects on the children from these
marriages. Cases of forced separation
from one parent are frequent, as well as
violations of court decisions on entrusting a child, which can be defined as a
criminal
act of child abduction.
D. Family reunion (art. 10)
- The
Family Law stipulates that the parent with whom a child does not live in a
family union has the right and responsibility to maintain
personal contacts with
the child, which means maintaining personal contacts (visits and similar) even
in cases when the parent and
the child do not live in the same country.
- Due
to war in BiH, a large number of children from BiH have been exiled to other
countries as refugees unaccompanied by parents.
In addition, a large number of
parentless children have been displaced within BiH.
E. Illicit transfer and non-return (art. 11)
- During
the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina a mass exodus and exile took place. A result
of this was a large number of displaced persons
and refugees, especially
children. Despite the efforts invested, the authorities in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, especially BiH diplomatic-consular
offices, have difficulties in
obtaining information on the number of children, especially those without
parental care and parental
supervision, who are refugees in other
countries.
- The
greatest problem pertains to the adoption of children of BiH citizens by foreign
citizens carried out in other countries contrary
to BiH regulations. The
relevant authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina usually learn about these cases
when the procedure is coming
to an end or when it has been completed, and even
this information is only received occasionally. The assumption is that there is
a large number of completed adoption procedures of which the relevant
authorities in BiH have not been notified.
F. Provision of child maintenance (art. 27, para. 4)
- The
Family Law stipulates that parents have the right and responsibility to support
their children (born in wedlock, out of wedlock
or adopted).
- The
issue of raising children as a rule does not come up when the child lives in a
family union with his/her parents and when his/her
needs are directly met. If
the parents live separately, regardless of whether a divorce has been completed,
and the child lives
with one of them, or with another person, or in an
institution, problems often arise concerning the child’s maintenance.
Supporting
a child is a responsibility and a right of the parents that they
cannot deny. Parents are in the first place obliged to support
their children
and in performing this duty they must use all their capacities. A child, or a
legal representative or guardian, cannot,
on his/her behalf and in his/her name,
waive the right to support.
- For
the sake of special childcare, the guardianship authority will try to obtain an
agreement on support of the child by the parents,
or to enhance their
contribution for raising a child when this is requested by the child’s
increased needs or is made possible
by an improved financial situation of the
parents.
- If
the parent with whom a child lives and who provides his/her care and upbringing
fails, without warranted reasons, to institute
court proceedings for support of
the child, this can be done on his/her behalf by the guardianship authority.
Likewise, if a parent
does not ask for the enforcement of the decision on
support, the guardianship authority is authorized to file an enforcement writ
with the court on behalf of the child.
- A
parent whose parental right has been revoked or a parent from whom the child was
removed under a decision of the guardianship authority
and entrusted to the
other parent, another person or relevant institution, is not exempted from the
obligation to support his/her
children.
- Parents
are responsible not only for supporting their children but also children who are
of age if their parental right has been extended
under a court decision in a
lawsuit.
- If
the child attends regular school, the responsibility of child support continues
after his/her attaining the age of majority, and
up to the age of 26 years.
Exceptionally, the law stipulates that the parents’ obligation to provide
child support can last
even after the child is 26 years of age, if by
then the child has not completed his/her regular education for “warranted
reasons”.
- A
parent who does not live with the child fulfils the obligation of support
through monetary payments and other consumable contributions
(food, clothing,
footwear, books and similar) to the other parent, or to the person or
institution taking care of the child.
- The
Criminal Law of BiH defines as a special criminal offence a person’s
avoidance of the obligation to provide support for
the person he/she is obliged
to support. Children born out of wedlock have the same rights as children born
in wedlock if paternity
is known or has been established. This applies to the
right to support as well.
G. Children deprived of their family environment (art.
20)
- A
harmonious family environment is necessary for proper growth and development of
a child. The family is a fundamental cell of society,
which enables a child to
obtain proper and full personal development. The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina
has led to a high level
of disruption of family life. A large number of
children were deprived of parental care. This is why adequate care and
assistance
should be given to children and youth. In a situation when a child
is deprived of parental care, the Law on Social Welfare offers
the possibility
of placing the child in an institution for social care, or being cared for in
foster care families or through adoption.
- Childcare
is developing in the direction of provision of institutional care and
accommodation within foster care families, placement
under guardianship,
adoption, inclusion in education or social institutions, assistance in kind or
other forms of organized assistance.
- The
current Law on Social Care stipulates the right to placement in a social care
institution or foster family for a child deprived
of parental care, for a child
whose development is impaired by parental circumstances, and for children
neglected in terms of education
and care. Children can be placed in an
institution of social care or foster family up to the age of 26 if they are
attending regular
school.
- According
to the Law on the Basis of Social Protection, Protection of Civilian War Victims
and Protection of Families with Children,
as well as according to the Law on
Institutions, social welfare institutions are organized and perform their
activities complying
with regulations on institutions. In performing their
activities, these institutions must not impose any limitations regarding
territorial,
ethnic, religious, political or any other background of their
beneficiaries (race, skin colour, gender, language and social
background).
- According
to the current Law on Social Care, a home for children and youth deprived of
parental care provides accommodation, upbringing,
education and training of
children and youth deprived of parents, and of children and youth whose
development is impaired by family
circumstances, until the conditions are met
for their return to their own families, adoption, inclusion into life outside
social
care institutions or for application of other appropriate form of care.
A home may also organize accommodation for single unemployed
pregnant women and
mothers with children up to 1 year of age.
- A
home can organize a reception centre for a short stay and supervision of
children until the conditions are met for their placement
with their parents,
adopters, guardians, or their placement in an institution. A home is obliged to
ensure that children receive
regular education in an adequate educational
institution; individual tutorial assistance; support and development of
interests; tutorial
in forming working, cultural and hygienic habits; creative
use of working hours and accommodation of pre-school children in kindergartens.
All this should be done in cooperation with kindergartens and schools with a
view to socializing children of this age.
- Placement
in social care institutions can be provided for children who need constant care
and assistance and whose social care rights
and other needs should be met, but
who cannot receive these in their own family or in any other way.
- The
decision on placement in an institution is taken by a centre for social work,
based on the opinion of an expert team, an executive
court decision, a
guardianship authority, or based on the decision of an expert commission
regarding work capacity, or the findings
and opinions of a relevant medical
institution.
- Various
needs can be identified in light of the changes in the population of
beneficiaries of children’s homes: previously
the children were from
socially vulnerable and destroyed families - now the institutions accommodate
children who lost both parents
in the war, which requires the creation of other
conditions, organization and methods of activity. A problem that requires
attention
is a large number of beneficiaries accommodated in these institutions
who are past the age that warrants further stay in such an
institution, but who
have nowhere to go and who do not have any job opportunities, and thus are not
able to earn a living and leave
these homes.
- Another
category of children that emerged as a consequence of the war is the category
of children who lost one parent who, under the
current Law on Social Care
do not belong to the category of social welfare beneficiaries. These are mostly
children who lost their
father - 19,805 of them (before the war 1,535; during
the war 15,775); and children who lost their mother - 3,751 (before the war
697;
during the war 1,650). In the majority of cases, these are children
of fallen soldiers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their total
number is 23,556
(according to incomplete statistics). Unofficially, the number of these
children is 32,000. The final collection
and processing of these data is under
way.
- Incomplete
(single-parent) families face problems in exercising their educational and
social functions. In a situation where thousands
of families have remained
without a provider, problems have accumulated, especially for women as single
mothers. It has become a
serious
- issue:
in what measure can a woman as a single parent respond to the new social
requirements of her family, since she is very often
a displaced person or a
refugee, without adequate housing, and without employment or any kind of
financial aid?
- Childcare
is provided in various forms: according to incomplete
statistics, 29,960 children receive child allowance; 4,544 children
receive special pension; 3,727 children receive family pension. Occasional
financial aid is provided for 866 children and permanent
financial aid for 890
children. Care provided by humanitarian organizations includes family packages
for 5,236 children and occasional
financial aid for 4,500 children.
- According
to the Draft Law on Basics of Social Welfare, Care of War Victims and Care of
Families with Children, the right to placement
in a foster family can be
exercised by children who need constant care and assistance for the purposes of
meeting their basic needs,
but who cannot enjoy them within their own family or
in any other way, up to the time of their return to their own family, or up
to
12 months after the completion of their regular education.
- The
centre for social work which has decided to place a child in a foster family
exercises supervision over and renders assistance
to that family, and maintains
contacts with the child in question through regular visits.
- A
foster parent must be mentally and physically healthy and must have social and
other prerequisites necessary for providing protection,
supervision, care,
nourishment and education and for satisfying other needs and interests of the
child.
- For
the placement of a child in a foster family it is necessary to have the
parents’, or the adopter’s or guardian’s
consent. If the
child is older than 15, it is also necessary to have his/her consent.
Parents’ consent is not necessary if
the parents are banned from
exercising parental duties.
- The
family in which a child is placed cannot undertake, without the parents’,
adopter’s or the guardian’s consent,
any important measures
regarding the child’s integrity; in particular, the family cannot hand the
child over to any other person
for custody or care, interrupt his/her education,
change the type of school he/she attends, decide about his/her vocation, or
conclude
an employment contract on his/her behalf. A child cannot be placed in
a foster family in which:
- − The
parental right of one of the spouses has been revoked;
- − Family
relations are dysfunctional;
- − A
member of the family demonstrates socially negative conduct;
- − The
child’s health would be jeopardized by an illness of a family
member.
- In
the Federation of BiH, a total of 2,794 children are placed in foster families.
This type of placement requires necessary financial
incentives for the potential
foster families, as well as a high level of supervision by professionals in the
centres for social work
as the guardianship authorities deciding on the
placement of children in foster families.
- A
foster parent has the right to a remuneration, which is established by cantonal
regulations. The costs of placement of children
in a social care institution or
in a foster family will be borne by the beneficiary, parent, adopter, guardian
or relative obliged
to support the child, in accordance with cantonal law, or
any other legal or physical person who undertakes the commitment to cover
the
costs.
- Children
have been placed in institutions under the current Law on Social Welfare; which
means that institutional care has prevailed.
However, in the draft Law on the
Basics of Social Care for Civilian War Victims, and Care for Families with
Children, placement
in a foster family is preferred as a more humane and
responsible form of care, which accordingly is the preferred strategy of the
FBiH for this vulnerable population category.
H. Adoption (art. 21)
- Adoption
is regulated by the Family Law. Adoption is a special form of care for children
deprived of parental care, where the interest
of the adoptee is not reduced only
to the economic interest, i.e. support. On the contrary, the proper physical,
moral and material
upbringing of the child is much more important.
- Adoption
creates a relationship of kinship between an adoptee and an adopter and his/her
offspring that is similar to the rights and
responsibilities that exist between
parents and children according to the law if not otherwise stipulated by the law
(incomplete
adoption); or a relationship of kinship between an adopter and
his/her relatives and an adoptee and his/her offspring that is the
same as that
with a blood relation (complete adoption). The guardianship authority must
invite a child older than 10 years to personally
participate in the adoption
procedure, although his/her parents or a guardian are representing him/her.
Should a child older than
10 not give his/her consent for adoption, such an
adoption is not legally effective, regardless of the fact that the guardianship
authority or the parents believe that adoption would be in the interest of the
child.
- Complete
adoption can be effected only if a child is under 5 and if his/her parents are
not alive, or if his/her parents are not identified
or have abandoned the child
and their whereabouts have not been known for over one year, or if his/her
parents have agreed before
the relevant guardianship authorities that the child
can be given over for complete adoption.
- Based
on incomplete statistics gathered so far by the guardianship authorities, in the
territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina 282 BiH
citizens have applied for adoption
of a child. In the period from 1992 until 1997, a total of 336 children were
adopted within the
territory of the Federation of BiH. These data are
incomplete because a great number of centres for social work, as well as
guardianship
authorities, were destroyed during the war along with the
documentation in their possession.
- Although
a large number of children in the territory of FBiH are deprived of parental
care, not all children meet the requirements
prescribed by the law for adoption.
For them, other forms of care have been offered in the country. Most
frequently, it is their
relatives who provide care for them.
- According
to the provisions of the Family Law, the adopter of a child who is a citizen of
BiH can as a rule only be a citizen of Bosnia
and Herzegovina. Exceptionally,
if specially warranted reasons exist, the adopter may be a foreign citizen.
This type of adoption
can be effected only with the permission of the Ministry
of Social Welfare, which is issued together with an opinion obtained from
the
Ministry of the Interior. Specially warranted reasons for international
adoption are established in each particular case.
- The
Family Law and the Law on Resolving Conflicts of Law with Regulations of Other
Countries in terms of certain relations stipulate
that the adoption procedures
are under the authority of a relevant body in the BiH (the guardianship
authority in the municipality
that is selected in accordance with the place of
permanent or temporary residence of the child).
- Throughout
the war, and especially in the post-war period, many foreign nationals,
international organizations, and even foreign States
approached and are still
approaching the local authorities with questions about the possibility of
adopting children who are BiH
citizens. However, since the number of children
who meet the requirements for adoption prescribed by the law is less than the
number
of requests received from citizens of BiH, the requests of BiH citizens
are accommodated first.
I. Abuse and neglect (art. 19)
- In
case a parent abuses his/her parental rights or abandons his/her child, or
demonstrates through his/her behaviour that he/she is
not taking care of the
child, or grossly neglects his/her duties, the court will revoke his/her
parental right in an extrajudiciary
procedure and the child will be placed under
guardianship, or will be assigned a guardian. The abuse of parental rights
means such
behaviour of the parents that is contrary to the interests of the
child. Thus, instead of protecting their child and taking care
of the
child’s life and health, supporting and upbringing him/her, representing
him/her and taking care of his/her property,
parents expose their child to
difficult physical chores which cause the child to fall ill; they punish him/her
seriously or do not
support him/her; they force the child into prostitution;
cause the child’s addiction to alcohol or drugs; force him/her to
commit
offences, or they commit criminal acts against their child.
- If
a parent abuses his/her child or grossly neglects parental duties in raising the
child, which results in the neglect of the child
of whom he/she is obliged to
take care, under the Criminal Law he/she is committing a criminal act of abuse
and neglect of a child.
- The
measure of revocation of parental rights may last until the child reaches the
age of 18, or until she/he enters into marriage
if this occurs before the
child’s eighteenth birthday. Prior to this, the court can return the
parental right to a parent
if the reason for which the parent was deprived of
this right no longer exists.
- The
procedure for returning the parental right is initiated at the proposal of a
parent, i.e. a guardian who has the parental right,
or the guardianship
authority, or at the proposal of a parent whose right has been
revoked.
J. Periodic reviews of treatment (art. 25)
- The
exercise of a guardian’s duty is under constant control by the State, i.e.
the guardianship authority, since guardianship
provides special care for a
child. Control by the guardianship authorities over the work of a guardian is
exercised, inter alia,
through the guardian’s duty to report to them on
his/her work. A guardian submits regular, extraordinary and final reports
and
accounts. A guardian submits regular reports and accounts of his/her work every
year. The Family Law prescribes that a report
must contain details on the
management and handling of the minor’s property and all the incomes and
expenditures over the past
year.
- A
guardian submits extraordinary reports and accounts whenever the guardianship
authority requests this. The guardianship authority
will ask for such a report
and account when it learns that there is negligence or other omissions in
the guardian’s work.
The reasons for requesting extraordinary reports and
accounts can also be information received from educational, medical or other
institutions in which a minor is temporarily accommodated; a complaint by the
minor or a third person; or the wish of the guardian
himself/herself.
- If
the guardianship authority performs the duty of guardianship directly, reports
and accounts should be submitted by the employee
of the guardianship authority
who performed the duties of guardianship towards a certain minor, or a person
who, on behalf of the
guardianship authorities, is performing the duties of
guardianship.
- A
report by a guardian on his/her work consists of two parts: details about the
personal development of the minor and details of
the management of the
minor’s property. The section of the report that is related to the
minor’s personality must contain
all the relevant details about the
minor’s physical, intellectual and moral development, especially his/her
health, upbringing
and education. The section of the report related to the
minor’s property must be accompanied by the following documents:
contracts, invoices, receipts, acts by relevant authorities specifying legal
obligations of the minor, and other public or private
documents from which one
can establish how well the guardian managed and handled the minor’s
property.
- The
guardianship authority is obliged to thoroughly consider any report submitted by
the guardian or by a professional exercising
the duties of guardianship.
In addition to the submission of reports on work and accounts, control of the
guardian’s work
is exercised through personal and direct oversight by the
authorized employee of the guardianship authority. However, according
to
incomplete information, once a child is placed in a foster family or family of
relatives or in an institution of social protection,
the guardianship
authorities/centres for social work, as local services for social care in each
concrete case, do not fulfil their
obligations stipulated by the provisions of
the Family Law in terms of regular visits, rendering assistance and monitoring
the child’s
development. The reason for this can be found, in the first
place, in the very poor financial and staffing situation in the local
services
for social care. This, however, does not free them from their responsibility as
the guardianship authorities.
- When
adopting a decision on the return of the parental rights, the court will take
into account the wishes of the child, if she/he
is capable of expressing them.
In the Federation of BiH, in 10 cantons, according to incomplete statistics,
there are 20 children
of parents who were deprived of their parental
rights.
VII. BASIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
A. Survival and development (art. 6, para. 2)
- The
BiH population went through serious demographic changes between 1992 and 1995,
which caused the population policy to face complex
tasks, especially with regard
to the healthcare system. The impact of the following factors on the survival
and development of the
child’s lifestyles and habits have to be mentioned:
the level of health education, tradition, religion, and social and economic
development of the community.
- Improving
and preserving children’s health, as well as ensuring healthy generations
and favourable demographic trends is an
important political and economic segment
of the health policy and strategy of every country. This is why great attention
was devoted
to this issue in the reports of both BiH Entities. The assessment
was made that only through coordinated, planned and strategic
approaches to this
issue is it possible to achieve social and economic development of society.
- Multidisciplinary
programmes whose basic task is the preservation and improvement of
children’s health are currently being prepared
and developed in both
Entities.
- According
to data from 1991, the most frequent causes of death in BiH were the following:
conditions stemming from the perinatal
period; congenital anomalies; symptoms
and signs of insufficiently defined conditions; diseases of the nervous system
and the hearing
organs; diseases of the respiratory system, etc. According to
1998 data from Republika Srpska, major causes of death of children
and youth in
the age group 1-24 were the following: heart diseases resulting from lung
problems; diseases of blood vessels of the
brain; ischemic heart diseases;
injuries, burns and poisoning.
- In
the area which is now FBiH, the mortality rate was 6.8 per 1,000 just before the
war, and during this period it was decreasing.
Depending on age, the rate
varied between 4.1 per 1,000 and 11.0 per 1,000. By 1996, the
mortality rate had returned approximately
to the pre-war figures.
- It
is important to emphasize that there is an evident linkage between the leading
causes of death and the perinatal period (pregnancy
and delivery); this should
be a clear indication that more attention needs to be paid to the improvement of
perinatal care. Since
the reports of the Entities do not provide joint
indicators for the reference period, the data presented in the statistical
bulletin
of the BiH Agency for Statistics are offered below:
Children live born, by age of mother
|
|
Mother’s age
|
Below 15
|
15-19
|
20-24
|
25-29
|
30-34
|
35-39
|
40-44
|
45-49
|
50 plus
|
Unknown
|
1996
|
46 594
|
10
|
3 751
|
13 769
|
13 760
|
9 292
|
4 316
|
724
|
47
|
5
|
920
|
1997
|
48 397
|
13
|
4 403
|
15 681
|
13 217
|
8 609
|
3 609
|
733
|
51
|
4
|
2 077
|
1998
|
45 007
|
2
|
3 191
|
14 515
|
12 937
|
7 971
|
3 577
|
756
|
53
|
4
|
2 001
|
Structure (in per cent)
|
|
Mother’s age
|
Below 15
|
15-19
|
20-24
|
25-29
|
30-34
|
35-39
|
40-44
|
45-49
|
50 plus
|
Unknown
|
1996
|
100
|
0.0
|
8.1
|
29.6
|
29.5
|
19.9
|
9.3
|
1.6
|
0.1
|
0.0
|
2.0
|
1997
|
100
|
0.0
|
9.1
|
32.4
|
27.3
|
17.8
|
7.5
|
1.5
|
0.1
|
0.0
|
4.3
|
1998
|
100
|
0.0
|
7.1
|
32.3
|
28.7
|
17.7
|
7.9
|
1.7
|
0.1
|
0.0
|
4.4
|
Specific fertility rates
|
|
Mother’s age
|
Below 15
|
15-19
|
20-24
|
25-29
|
30-34
|
35-39
|
40-44
|
45-49
|
50 plus
|
1996
|
31.2
|
0.1
|
30.7
|
107.6
|
96.9
|
59.9
|
28.4
|
5.3
|
0.5
|
0.0
|
1997
|
32.4
|
0.1
|
36.1
|
122.5
|
93.1
|
55.5
|
23.7
|
5.4
|
0.5
|
0.0
|
1998
|
30.1
|
0.0
|
26.2
|
113.4
|
91.1
|
51.4
|
23.5
|
5.5
|
0.5
|
0.0
|
- The
birth rate in 1996 was 13.2 per 1,000 in FBiH and 8.8 per 1,000 in RS; in 1997
it was 9.8 per 1,000, and in 1998 9.4 per 1,000.
Having in mind
that the birth rate in BiH in 1991 was 14.9 per 1,000, it can be concluded that
the drop of this rate during 1992-1998
is a result of the large number of deaths
among the population, which led to reproduction rates that cannot be
statistically projected.
To illustrate this, the following data are
offered:
Percentage of missing and killed persons 6.3
Percentage of displaced persons 29.8
Percentage of refugees 28.4
Population - mid-year assessment and natural trend
|
Population mid-year, in
thousands
|
Born
|
Dead
|
Natural growth
|
Marriages
|
Born live
|
Still-born
|
In total
|
Infants
|
Married
|
Divorced
|
Total
|
Male
|
Total
|
Male
|
Total
|
Male
|
1996
|
3 645
|
46 594
|
24 398
|
271
|
25 152
|
13 952
|
653
|
360
|
21 442
|
21 107
|
-
|
1997
|
3 738
|
48 397
|
25 297
|
240
|
27 875
|
15 184
|
601
|
369
|
20 522
|
23 220
|
1 835
|
1998
|
3 653
|
45 007
|
23 425
|
202
|
28 679
|
15 303
|
494
|
302
|
16 328
|
22 398
|
1 964
|
Rates of natural population trend
|
|
Deaths of infants per 1 000 born live
|
Marriages per 1,000 inhabitants
|
Divorces per 1,000 inhabitants
|
Live births
|
Deaths
|
Natural growth
|
1996
|
12.8
|
6.9
|
5.9
|
14.0
|
5.0
|
|
1997
|
12.9
|
7.5
|
5.5
|
12.4
|
6.2
|
79.0
|
1998
|
12.3
|
7.9
|
4.5
|
11.0
|
6.1
|
87.7
|
Natural population trend in BiH
Previous data
|
Live births
|
Deaths
|
Natural growth
|
Deaths of infants
|
Marriages
|
Divorces
|
Vital index
|
January 1999
|
2 851
|
2 196
|
655
|
23
|
1 642
|
84
|
1.30
|
February 1999
|
3 057
|
2 552
|
505
|
38
|
1 174
|
75
|
1.20
|
March 1999
|
3 375
|
2 972
|
403
|
31
|
996
|
90
|
1.14
|
April 1999
|
3 201
|
2 499
|
702
|
26
|
1 873
|
110
|
1.28
|
May 1999
|
3 333
|
2 199
|
1 134
|
53
|
2 009
|
125
|
1.52
|
June 1999
|
3 576
|
2 170
|
1 406
|
38
|
1 559
|
79
|
1.65
|
July 1999
|
3 925
|
2 104
|
1 821
|
22
|
2 321
|
102
|
1.87
|
August 1999
|
4 147
|
2 310
|
1 837
|
48
|
2 616
|
105
|
1.80
|
September 1999
|
4 116
|
2 353
|
1 763
|
30
|
2 125
|
126
|
1.75
|
October 1999
|
3 834
|
2 067
|
1 767
|
24
|
2 268
|
121
|
1.85
|
November 1999
|
3 525
|
2 228
|
1 297
|
29
|
1 982
|
140
|
1.58
|
December 1999
|
3 387
|
2 544
|
843
|
32
|
1 883
|
129
|
1.33
|
1 December 1999
|
42 327
|
28 194
|
14 133
|
394
|
22 448
|
1 286
|
1.50
|
January 2000
|
2 626
|
2 433
|
193
|
23
|
1 361
|
77
|
1.08
|
February 2000
|
3 269
|
3 296
|
-27
|
38
|
1 134
|
105
|
0.99
|
March 2000
|
3 118
|
2 644
|
474
|
20
|
1 338
|
124
|
1.18
|
April 2000
|
3 016
|
3 302
|
714
|
35
|
1 661
|
104
|
1.31
|
May 2000
|
3 247
|
2 616
|
631
|
38
|
1 702
|
140
|
1.24
|
June 2000
|
3 294
|
2 200
|
1 094
|
38
|
1 627
|
150
|
1.50
|
July 2000
|
3 377
|
2 157
|
1 220
|
21
|
2 114
|
130
|
1.57
|
August 2000
|
3 950
|
2 233
|
1 717
|
41
|
2 488
|
125
|
1.77
|
September 2000
|
3 380
|
2 173
|
1 207
|
25
|
2 069
|
120
|
1.56
|
1 September 2000
|
29 277
|
22 054
|
7 223
|
279
|
15 494
|
1 075
|
1.33
|
- An
increase from 6.0 per cent to 12.0 per cent in the share of the age group 65 and
over in the total population is also evident,
as well as a decrease in the
age group 0-6 from 11.1 per cent to 7.75 per cent. This is seen
as a result of living conditions created
by the war, of forced migration, a
decrease in the birth rate and natural growth, and a large number of violent
deaths, especially
among the active population. The almost two-fold increase in
the share of those aged 65 and over is not the result of an extension
of life
span, but rather of a decrease in the share of younger people in the total
population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The average
life span in BiH in 1991 was
74 years.
- The
share of the male population in BiH in 1991 was 49.5-50 per cent, the female
share 5050.5 per cent.
- In
1998, the mortality rate was 6.8 per 1,000 in FBiH and 10.41 per 1,000 in RS.
By that year the mortality rate had returned to
the level of 1991, which
constituted a big improvement from the war years. The 1998 infant mortality
rate was 14.7 per 1,000 newborns
in FBiH. In RS, it was 14.6 per 1,000 in 1996
and decreased to 9.7 per 1,000 in 1998.
- During
1992 and 1993, an increase in the mortality rate of infants was observed
resulting from migration, changed living conditions,
lack of access to adequate
prenatal care, psychogenic illnesses resulting from exposure to traumatic
events, inadequate nutrition
of pregnant women, as well as incomplete
immunization of the population. The infant mortality rate in 1994 and 1995
- was
4.5 per cent, while the infant mortality rate in relation to the overall
mortality rate was 2.7 per cent. Mortinatality is defined
as the
ratio of the number of stillborn babies per 1,000 live births. During
the war a decrease in the mortinatality rate was observed
because the value of
this rate was influenced by the value of the overall mortality rate. (In 1991,
the rate was 4.9 per 1,000;
in 1992, 4.8 per 1,000; in 1993, 3.1 per 1,000; in
1994, 5.6 per 1,000; and in 1995 it was 4.9 per 1,000.)
- The
share of the 0-18 age group in the overall population was 33 per cent during the
war. However, a decrease to 29 per cent was
registered in 1998 due to
migration, a decrease in birth rate and war activities.
- Women’s
health care in general and the health care of women of reproductive age
specifically require a series of elements such
as: an educational system, the
emancipation of women, implementation of fundamental human rights, increased
health awareness among
women, humanization of relations between the two sexes,
family planning (it is very important to emphasize the adverse effects on
women’s health of abortions as a form of contraception), supervision and
control of pregnancy and puerperium according to a
minimum and an optimum
programme, as well as professional assistance at delivery. Efforts should also
be made towards prevention
of premature deliveries, anaemia and hereditary
diseases.
- Active
supervision of women’s health should be intensified for the early
detection of malign genital diseases. Concurrently,
this would constitute be a
basis for satisfactory health of future generations.
- In
1998, the infant mortality rate in BiH was 11 per 1,000. Among children up to 5
years of age the mortality rate was and 13 per
1,000 children born live. In
addition, the following data were registered:
3 per cent of
newborns have a low birth weight - below 2,500 grams;
3 per cent of children have retarded development;
3 per cent of children up to 5 years of age lose weight;
13 per cent of children up to age 5 are classified as obese.
- It
should be underlined that health care is guaranteed by the BiH constitutional
system, with a particular emphasis on the right of
the mother and child to
benefit from special health care. This care is provided through the health
system in both Entities (RS Law
on Health Care; RS Law on Child Care; FBiH Law
on Social Care, whose provisions are elaborated through cantonal legislation).
Health
care for mother and child forms part of a system of comprehensive health
care and social protection that links all phases of reproduction
and development
of children, from the prenatal, perinatal and postnatal periods up to adulthood.
This care should ensure the achievement
of a decrease in the mortality rate and
morbidity rate of mothers and children, as well as giving each child an
opportunity to be
born as a wanted child.
- According
to 1996 data, there were 545,343 schoolchildren in the total population in FBiH.
As for RS, 128,422 students were attending
school in the school year
1998/99.
- Health
care in BiH can be divided into three levels: primary, secondary and tertiary.
- The
organized supervision of childcare is part of the primary health care provided
by paediatricians working in health centres. According
to 1996 data, the number
of paediatricians in FBiH was 144, while in RS it was 20. The number of senior
nurses in FBiH was 3, and
the number of junior nurses with a secondary school
degree was 217. In 1995, 20,034 systematic check-ups were carried out in FBiH.
As for RS, there were 19,364 medical check-ups, which are compulsory according
to the law.
- It
is important to emphasize that children/infants are treated as a special group.
For this group, supervision is organized until
the age of 1 once a month, or at
a minimum four times a year. For this age group, it is important to note the
role of community
nurses who are entrusted with these activities. For children
up to 5 years of age, active medical supervision is organized twice
a year.
- The
health of children and young people should be improved in a way that provides
them with the prospect of growing up and fully developing
their physical and
mental/psychological potential.
- In
1996, the three leading diseases among children of pre-school age (0-6) were the
following: acute infections of the upper respiratory
tract; acute bronchitis
and bronchiolitis; noninfectious enteritis; and colitis. Among younger
schoolchildren, the most frequent
diagnoses are the following: acute infections
of the upper respiratory tract; acute bronchitis and bronchitis; skin infections
and
infections of the subcutaneous tissue. Among older schoolchildren, the
order of frequency is the following: acute infections of
the upper respiratory
tract; acute bronchitis and bronchitis; and anaemia caused by lack of iron.
- Since
1995, health-care reform has been ongoing in the territory of Bosnia and
Herzegovina. While health service is nominally free
for poor and vulnerable
population categories, payment for medicines and medical treatment constitutes a
huge financial burden for
other families. Because of this, a project for basic
medicines is being introduced in BiH. A programme for integrated detection
and
treatment of childhood diseases is also being implemented in BiH by the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the
World Health Organization (WHO).
Diseases included in the programme are: acute infections of the upper
respiratory tract, diarrhoea,
dehydration, measles and malnourishment. Malaria
is exempted from this programme since measures relating to malaria are not
carried
out in the territory of BiH.
- A
decrease in immunization rates has been registered in BiH and the level is
presently at one third of the pre-war rate. Under a
WHO immunization programme
adopted in 1997, three quarters of the total number of children up to 18
months received the recommended
doses of vaccines. Minority children,
especially Roma children and children living in collective centres, are not
sufficiently covered
by the immunization
programme.
B. Children with psychological and physical developmental
disabilities (art. 23)
- According
to the provisions of the Law on Social Protection, a minor person with
psychological and physical developmental disabilities
is a person suffering from
hearing impairment or vision impairment, a person with speech or voice
disorders, with physical disabilities,
a mentally retarded person (mild,
moderate, serious or severe retardation) or a person with combined disabilities.
- In
1997, the number of children with psychophysical developmental disabilities in
FBiH was 14,202, 33 per cent of whom received social
assistance. In RS, the
number of children with psychophysical developmental disabilities is 6,454, of
whom 1,300 are mentally retarded.
Behavioural disorders were registered in
1,092 children. Blindness, deafness, paraplegia, dystrophy or other physical
disabilities
were registered among 590 individuals in total. Two thousand
six hundred and sixty-four individuals reside in a dysfunctional family
environment, while 465 children are accommodated in social welfare
institutions.
- The
2000 data are as follows:
In FBiH, the share of children with
psychophysical developmental disabilities in the total population is as follows:
Children with physical developmental disability 14 per cent
Children with psychological developmental disability 50 per cent
Children with combined disabilities 18 per cent
Children with hearing impairment 6 per cent
Children with vision impairment 6 per cent
Children with speech impediments 6 per cent
- The
following are social care institutions for disabled children:
- − In RS:
Centre “Zaštita” (Protection) - Banja Luka; Institute for Blind
Persons “Budućnost”
(Future) - Derventa; Institute for
Dystrophics - Banja Luka; Centre for Education, Upbringing and Rehabilitation of
Hearing - Banja
Luka; Child Home “Rada Vranješević” -
Banja Luka; Institute for Treatment, Rehabilitation and Social Protection
of
Mental Patients “Jakeš” - Modriča. These institutions
accommodate 477 children;
- − In FBiH
there are two institutions for mentally retarded children: Institute for
Protection of Children and Youth - Pazarić
and Institute for Mentally
Disabled Persons - Fojnica. These institutions accommodate 116
children/beneficiaries of social
protection.
- Disabled
children are guaranteed special social protection by the BiH Constitution, by
both Entity Constitutions and by legal regulations at the same level dealing
with social welfare issues; the goal is to reintegrate
them into normal life
according to their preferences and remaining capabilities. A special problem is
employment of children with
developmental disabilities after they complete
school, since the economy of BiH is devastated.
- One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-one children are registered in FBiH as persons
with disabilities ranging from 20 per cent to
100 per cent, 784 children with a
physical disability of 60 per cent to 100 per cent and 1,047 children with a
physical disability
of 20 per cent to 60 per cent.
- In
RS, the number of children up to 1 year of age wounded during the war
constituted 2.4 per cent of the total population, while the
number of
wounded children up to 2 years of age constituted 2.1 per cent. Three
thousand five hundred children were seriously disabled
(23.4 per cent of them
sustained head injuries).
- In
FBiH, the following local and international organizations provided their
assistance in reconstruction and equipment for special
schools and institutes,
as well as other forms of aid for children with psychophysical developmental
disabilities: Refugee Trust
- Ireland; Schuler Helfen Leben; Solidarities;
“Želimo da povono hodamoo” (We wish to walk again);
Équilibre;
Bereket, Terra, Norwegian People’s Aid,
Deutsch-Bosnische Kriegskinder Direkthilfe, Komitee Cap Anamur, Médecins
du
Monde, Mission Locale de Strasbourg, Sans Limites, Islamic Relief, Hope 87,
Mallorca Solidaria, Brucke nach BiH, ICA CABR, Saudi
High Commission relief for
BiH, Landmine Survivors Network, “Nasa Djeca” Sarajevo.
C. Social structure, services and facilities for childcare
(arts. 26 and 18)
- The
elements, scope and responsibilities for the realization of children’s
rights in social and child welfare are identified
by the FBiH Law on the Bases
of Social Welfare, as well as by the RS Law on Social Welfare and Law on Child
Care. Following the
entry into force of the Dayton Agreement, and pursuant to
provisions of the FBiH Constitution, social policy is exercised as a shared
competence between cantons and the Federation authority. In the development of
legal regulations
in this field, the provisions of the Convention on the Rights
of the Child were taken into consideration.
- Institutions
of social welfare are operating in the territory of FBiH as legal Entities.
There are 79 local services of social welfare
in the 10 cantons of FBiH with 622
employees. The total number of staff employed in six institutions caring for
children without
parental care is 203. These institutions are operating in the
following regions: Sarajevo - one; Tuzla - one;
Zenica - two;
Mostar - one; Međugorje - one. Institutions accommodating children with
special needs are located in “Pazarić”
and in Fojnica. They
employ 179 staff.
- Child
allowance is a special form of welfare provided for children in accordance with
the law. Children up to the age of 15 are entitled
to this allowance. If they
go to school, they are entitled to this allowance until they reach the age of
26. It should be stressed
that disabled children are also entitled to this
allowance if the disability occurred before they reached the age of 15, or
before
the age of 26 years if the child is attending regular school.
- The
child allowance is increased by a certain percentage for children without one or
both parents, for children with physical and
psychological developmental
disabilities, and for children suffering from diabetes. In 1998, 46,775
requests for child allowance
were registered in FBiH. It should be noted that
it is only in Sarajevo Canton that child allowances are actually paid, at an
average
of 16 KM per child for 22,526 children. This right is not realized in
the other nine cantons, due to lack of budget means.
- Childcare
in RS is organized as a system of rights of parents and children, and
implemented through organized activities of institutions,
services and the Child
Care Public Fund. The law stipulates the rights and responsibilities of parents
pertaining to the upbringing
and education of their children, as well as the
particular responsibility of the State to provide living conditions for children
that ensure a proper psychophysical development.
- On
the basis of these facts, it can be concluded that childcare is of special
interest to society.
- Rights
arising from childcare belong to children and their parents and are not
transferable; in this way the purpose of these rights
is achieved. These rights
are of a special protective nature and are primarily intended for families
living in difficult conditions,
as well as for children with special needs. The
difficult economic situation in BiH is a reason for the lack of real social
opportunities
to obtain fulfilment of these rights and to provide social welfare
and rehabilitation for the above categories of children.
- One
problem is related to the inability to continue with social welfare and
assistance for children completing elementary and secondary
education who do not
have the opportunity to continue with their education or find employment. This
is also a problem for children
with developmental disabilities and for those who
were accommodated in certain institutions during their education, because these
categories of children (orphans who were in childcare institutions) are more
prone to committing juvenile offences.
- In
RS centres for social work are organized. There are also social welfare
services to help children without parental care, to ensure
their placement in
institutions for neglected children and, to find foster families and guardians
or adopters. A total of 219 children
are accommodated in four childcare
institutions which seek to provide them with optimal care and protection.
Accommodation in foster
families has been ensured for 580 children. Different
forms of care and protection for children are provided in kindergartens and
day-care centres, as well as through club activities. There are 40 centres for
social work operating in RS, as well as 19 services
for social and preventive
care. Along with regular activities, they provide counselling for families
related to childcare and protection.
The scope of these activities has been
increased because of a lower family income, lack of employment opportunities,
and posttraumatic
stress. During the war and in the post-war years, these
institutions were financed primarily through humanitarian aid. The situation
is
now considerably different since humanitarian aid has been discontinued and
local administrations are not able to fulfil their
obligations towards the
institutions. In RS, there are 80 pre-school institutions with
6,000 children. According to the RS Law
on Child Care, the right to
compensation for preschool expenses is stipulated for the third and fourth child
(we note that this right
is exercised only in municipalities with a negative
natural growth).
- Assistance
coming from humanitarian programmes of international organizations and
institutions should primarily be carried out within
programmes that strengthen
the capacities of families and children to take care of their own security and
future.
D. Health and health-care services (art. 24)
- The
following are the principles of health care: comprehensiveness, continuity and
accessibility. Health professionals and their
associates provide health care
and follow the achievements in the development of medical science. Health-care
activities are organized
and implemented as primary, specialist/consultative and
hospital health care.
- Primary
health care includes visits by a family doctor, assistance provided by a general
practitioner, by a dentist, a specialist
gynaecologist or a specialist
paediatrician, as well as by a specialist in general medical practice and
industrial medicine. Psychologists,
speech therapists and social workers also
contribute to achieving the goals of primary health care.
- The
following components are included in health-care measures: health-care measures
for children of pre-school age, care and improvement
of their health and
improvement of their psychophysical capabilities; prevention measures related to
natural feeding of infants/breastfeeding;
health care for pregnant women, health
care during and after delivery; measures of health care and improvement of the
health condition
of pupils, students and young athletes; evaluation of their
capabilities for education and work; and health-care measures provided
for
children with developmental disabilities.
- According
to the Law on Health Insurance, the different categories of health insurance
are: compulsory, extended and voluntary health
insurance. In FBiH, compulsory
health care is based on the principles of mutuality and solidarity within a
canton or within two
or more cantons. It includes health care and reimbursement
of travel expenses related to the use of health care. As family members
of
insurance beneficiaries, children born in wedlock are also insured, as well as
children born out of wedlock, adopted children
and stepchildren up to the age of
15, or up to the age of 26 if they attend regular school.
- If
a child whose regular schooling has been interrupted because of illness or
injury is the child of an insurance beneficiary, she/he
is entitled to health
insurance during the illness or injury. In this case, as well as in the case of
interruption of schooling
due to military service, the right to compulsory
health care is prolonged for the duration of the interruption of regular
schooling.
- If
the child of a beneficiary becomes permanently disabled before reaching the age
of 15, he/she is entitled to health insurance during
this disability. Children
without both parents are entitled to health insurance if the beneficiary has
accepted to support them.
Supported children with one or two parents are also
entitled to the same right if their parents cannot take care of them due to
their health condition or for another reason.
- A
child who has reached the age of 15, regardless of whether she/he has completed
primary school, who has not found employment will
acquire the status of an
insuree if he/she reports to the Employment Bureau within 30 days from the date
of reaching the age of 15.
- Students
who attend secondary school, two-year post-secondary school or university and
who are not medically insured are entitled
to health care as members of a
beneficiary’s family in the same way as other members of the
beneficiary’s family. The
payment of contributions for this category of
child is the responsibility of the authorized body of the canton.
- Among
other rights, the insuree is entitled to salary compensation during sick leave
as part of the health insurance. This compensation
may not be less than 80 per
cent of the officially calculated basis for compensation and is paid from the
funds of the cantonal insurance
bureau.
- The
most relevant indicators of the health condition and health care of children are
the following: infant mortality rate, mortality
rate of children up to 14, and
infant and child morbidity rate. Requests for the termination of pregnancy of a
minor pregnant woman
must be submitted by one of the parents or the guardian on
her behalf if she has not reached the age of 16 or does not earn a living
through work.
- Despite
a request by parents, the termination of pregnancy of a person who has reached
the age of 14 cannot be carried out without
her own consent. An abortion may be
performed if the pregnancy has not advanced beyond 10 weeks and provided that
the abortion will
not endanger the life of the woman. Requests to terminate a
pregnancy after the tenth week will be decided by a commission of the
health
institution consisting of two doctors and one social worker. The commission
will approve an abortion in the case of a minor
for the following reasons: if
the continuation of the pregnancy may endanger the life and health of the woman;
if it is expected,
based on medical examinations, that the child will be born
with difficult physical or psychophysical disabilities; if the pregnancy
is the
result of the criminal act of rape or statutory rape; or if the pregnancy is the
result of incest. Termination of pregnancy
advanced beyond 20 weeks is not to
be approved under any circumstances.
- The
body parts of a minor may not be used for transplantation, except in those cases
when a part of the body of a dead minor is to
be used for purposes of medical
treatment, with the consent of parents. It is explicitly determined by law that
this consent can
be granted only by a mentally healthy adult person.
- According
to the law on limited use of tobacco products in FBiH, which aims to protect
children (because tobacco causes suffering
of both active and second-hand
smokers), smoking is forbidden in educational institutions, in facilities for
the accommodation of
children and students, as well as in pastry shops and milk
bars. There is a ban on promoting and selling tobacco products in facilities
that are less than 100 m away from pre-school and school facilities, as well as
on selling these products in coin-operated machines.
It is also forbidden to
sell cigarettes to persons under the age of 15.
- The
law on protection of the population from infectious diseases endangering the
whole country has defined the organization and implementation
of measures for
the prevention and control of infectious diseases. General and special measures
include provision of clean drinking
water, food safe for consumption, and
sanitary, technical and hygienic conditions for the production and circulation
of safe food
and water; disinfection; pest control; compulsory immunization;
prophylaxis; and health awareness campaigns.
- Access
to pure drinking water is ensured for 98 per cent of the population, with minor
differences between rural and urban populations,
while 90 per cent of the
population live in households with sanitary installations (in some isolated
areas, hepatitis has been registered
but there are no registered cases of
poliomyelitis). A low level of vaccination against measles is registered - 25
per cent of children
up to the age of 1 year. This percentage is a result of a
standard immunization calendar different from the standards of WHO.
- Immunization
against tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis, rubeola,
mumps and varicella is mandatory for children.
Immunization is carried out
under an order issued for every calendar year, which defines the programme and
method of immunization,
as well as the responsibility of health institutions in
implementing this programme. The BCG vaccine has been received by 95 per
cent
of children up to the age of 12 months; 93 per cent have received the first dose
of DiTePer (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis) by
the age of 12 months, whereas the
percentage of those receiving the second dose of the DiTePer vaccine decreases
to 91 per cent,
and the third dose to 88 per cent. The OPV vaccine, the
first dose against poliomyelitis, has been received by 93 per cent of children
up to the age of 12 months, while 90 per cent of children received the
second dose and 87 per cent received the third dose of this
vaccine.
- AIDS
is among the infectious diseases whose prevention and control is in the interest
of BiH. Within the FBiH and RS Ministries of
Health, coordinators of the UNAIDS
Committee for Prevention of HIV/AIDS have been appointed. It is important to
emphasize that the
HIV virus is not a priority problem in BiH (0.04 patients per
100,000 inhabitants were registered in FBiH in 1998 as HIV-positive
while 25
cases were registered in RS). It is suggested that these infections were caused
by the transit of goods and people through
BiH, as well as by questionable
sexual contacts.
- Also
with a view to protecting children’s health, working with sources of
ionizing radiation is forbidden for children under
the age of 18, for pregnant
women and for mothers breastfeeding their children.
- The
issuance of poison to children under 18 is forbidden.
- A
total of 4,371 persons are victims of landmines. This is based on the
indicators presented by the International Committee of the
Red Cross as of and
including August
2000.
Period/year
|
Number of victims
|
Monthly average
|
1992-1995
|
3 146
|
66
|
1996
|
626
|
52
|
1997
|
286
|
24
|
1998
|
149
|
12
|
1999
|
95
|
8
|
2000 (including August)
|
69
|
9
|
In total
|
4 371
|
|
Number of victims per age group at time of incident
(period
1996-August 2000)
|
0-5
|
6-10
|
11-18
|
19-25
|
26-35
|
36-45
|
46-60
|
Over 60
|
Unknown
|
Total
|
Number of victims
|
12
|
43
|
213
|
162
|
238
|
203
|
198
|
90
|
66
|
1 225
|
- It
is important to mention the activities of the following organizations in Bosnia
and Herzegovina:
(a) “Baby Friendly Hospital
Initiative” - a committee for support and protection of breastfeeding
established in 1997.
World Breastfeeding Week is marked in BiH every year. In
addition, the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes
has
been implemented.
(b) The following programmes are ongoing in RS: “Breastfeeding in the
Republika Srpska”, “School for pregnant
women in Republika
Srpska”,“Prevention of nutritive anaemia in children aged 0-6 in
Republika Srpska”; “Determining
iodine prophylaxis of the goitrous
condition in children aged 7 to 14 in Republika Srpska”; and “Acute
respiratory infections
and acute diarrhoea syndrome in children aged 0-6 in
Republika Srpska”.
- Iron
and iodine deficits in children have been registered in the territory of BiH,
causing nutritive anaemia with the rate increasing
from 4 per cent in 1991 to 6
per cent in 1997. In total, 8 per cent of the child population up to four
months of age in BiH are
exclusively breastfed. Apart from causing goitre,
iodine deficit adversely affects the physical and psychological development of
children. A 1953 law made iodization of salt with 5 mg per 1 kg of salt
compulsory. A WHO/UNICEF programme for iodization of salt
is implemented at a
level of 2030 mg of iodine per 1 kg of salt because the population of BiH
in areas such as Srebrenica used un-iodized
salt during the war.
E. Standard of living (art. 27)
- The
standard of living of a large number of children is threatened by the enormous
consequences of the war and the slow restoration
of the economy, a high
unemployment rate, and a decreased national income. Limited financial resources
in the Entities have a restricting
effect on the implementation of actions that
would improve the standard of living of children and other vulnerable population
categories.
- During
the post-war period, the best results have been achieved in the area of care of
children without parental care, in renovation
of schools, and in improvement of
children’s health. In addition, 99 per cent of all women in BiH are
included in pre-natal
health care provided by health professionals, while
in 2000 medical assistance during delivery was provided
in 100 per cent of cases.
F. Education, leisure and cultural activities (art.
28)
- One
of the basic constitutional principles of a modern, democratic society is that
every child has the right to a full and harmonious
development of his/her
capabilities. In this sense, in the first instance parents have the full
responsibility, followed by society
as a whole. Parents are
- obliged
to raise, support and educate their children and have the right to freely and
independently decide on these matters. Growth
and development in a family
environment is of primary interest to the child. This is why the family is
under special protection
of the State - this is also a constitutional provision.
In order for both the child and the family to exercise their interests and
freely play their roles, society in general has an important role to
play.
Specific characteristics of BiH education
- An
attempt to establish a unified but realistic picture of the situation in BiH
education is as valuable as the current efforts to
rebuild the war-torn and
divided country as a single, modern and democratic State of Bosnia and
Herzegovina in accordance with international
standards, principles and practices
of modern society. To understand the existing situation, it is necessary to
keep in mind several
facts. Bosnia and Herzegovina is an internationally
recognized State which emerged from the dissolution of the former Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). The consequences of the war are still
evident in BiH in almost all fields and spheres of
society, including in the
field of education. Specific characteristics of the internal organization are
directly reflected in the
system, or rather systems of education.
- Children
and young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who before the war were included in
a single educational system, are today educated
according to a
“tripartite” pattern, depending on the area in which they live and
the ethnicity they belong to. In other
words, instead of one, there are three
educational systems in BiH. In FBiH, where Bosniaks constitute the majority
population, the
pre-war educational system has been continued with the most
necessary changes and modifications. In the area where Croats are the
majority,
the curriculum and textbooks from the neighbouring Republic of Croatia are used
based upon a decision of the local authorities.
In RS, school patterns and
textbooks from the Republic of Serbia have been adopted and are used in
practise, with some modifications
in the programme.
- In
FBiH, powers in the field of education have been delegated to the cantons.
Cantons are authorized to repeal laws and to pass new
educational laws and
regulations and fully develop and implement educational policy. In RS,
education is the responsibility of the
Entity government.
- The
Ministries of Education of FBiH and RS, together with representatives of the
international community, have launched an initiative
to develop a common
educational base for the whole State of BiH with full respect of ethnic,
cultural and religious characteristics
of all constituent peoples in BiH. This
is one of the obligations arising from the provisions of the Dayton Agreement
that have
not been implemented as yet. There is still no common educational
programme.
- The
educational system is going through a process of transition to a new system that
will respect the changes and needs that have
emerged. Basic characteristics of
the changes in the educational system are reflected in its decentralization, the
passing and implementation
of new laws for all levels of education, the legal
regulation of the establishment of private schools, religious instruction
issues,
the establishment of a system to finance education, development of
appropriate plans and programmes, printing of new textbooks, education
of
teaching staff, etc.
- The
previous educational system contained an ideological package in which the
specific characteristics of some of BiH’s constituent
nations were
inadequately represented, especially in terms of the subjects reflecting
national identity: history, literature, geography,
art. In education as well
as in the current linguistic practice, three official languages are in use:
Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian.
The standard language of literature in BiH in
the pre-war period was named Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian, which in practice
and
in grammar and orthography respected two language variants: the eastern and
the western variant.
- During
the democratic process in BiH the language issue has been “touched
upon”, and it has been opened up for suggestions
for a new formulation of
BiH linguistic practice and tradition, based above all on the respect for
specific ethnic and cultural characteristics
of the BiH peoples.
Pre-school education
- Pre-school
education is of great importance both in an educational and a social sense. In
addition to creating preconditions for
the child’s participation in the
regular school process, this form of education plays an important role in
helping employed
mothers. However, pre-school education in BiH is still
underdeveloped and is carried out in a small number of institutions; the
need to
increase these opportunities is obvious. Some pre-school institutions were
destroyed or devastated during the war.
- International
humanitarian organizations provide important assistance by repairing and
equipping schools and by helping staff to adopt
modern methods in work with
children. According to 1996 data, there were 67 pre-school institutions in FBiH
with 6,184 children
and 744 teachers, while in RS 40 kindergartens were
active.
- Children
with physical and mental disabilities are educated in special schools and
institutes, with special care and attention provided
by society and in
accordance with the law. During the war, a special education faculty was
established in FBiH for the education
of necessary teaching staff. There are
problems with financing these schools due to the inclusion of children from the
whole of
BiH.
Elementary education
- This
type of education is obligatory, free and available under the same conditions
for all children. The largest number of elementary
schools in BiH are State
owned. Following the Dayton Agreement, several private elementary schools were
opened in BiH. However,
this type of elementary school is still in its
inception phase of development and is available to some social categories
only.
- Basic
elementary education is provided in elementary schools, in special elementary
schools for children with disabilities, and in
special schools intended for
additional education of adults (especially present in BiH before the war).
- Elementary
education lasts eight years (4+4). It is possible to receive elementary art
education (music and ballet) in parallel.
Classes in grades I-IV in elementary
school are taught by teachers who have completed teacher training colleges or
teacher faculties.
Pupils in these grades have 4 classes per day, i.e. 20
classes a week. In grades V-VIII, classes are taught by teachers or professors
who have completed teacher training colleges or teaching faculties. Pupils in
these grades have 5 or more classes per day, i.e.
25 classes a week. The total
number of classes in all grades can be increased by a maximum of five classes
per week of other educational
activities. The educational curriculum is
implemented over 36 weeks, and for pupils of grade VIII over 34 weeks.
Educational work
is organized in two semesters with two school breaks (winter
and summer). According to the existing standards, classes of one and
the same
grade have up to 30, or exceptionally up to 34 pupils. There are also combined
classes of two grades that may have 15 pupils.
- The
curriculum is taught in the three official languages of BiH: Bosnian, Serbian
and Croatian. The official alphabets are Latin
and Cyrillic. The school can
organize special forms of education for pupils who are not in a position to
participate in regular
classes due to long medical treatment, either at home or
in the hospital.
- According
to available data, there are 1,147 elementary schools within the territory of
BiH. In 1997 in the Federation of BiH, 266,918
pupils attended elementary
school and 12,382 teachers were teaching them. At the time no data on the
number of children not included
in elementary education were available. In RS,
there were 196 registered schools in the academic year 1998/99; 128,422 pupils
attended
elementary school and 98.9 per cent of pupils completed elementary
school.
Secondary education
- Secondary
education forms part of the overall educational system and is available under
the same conditions to all pupils who have
completed elementary school. For
pupils with disabilities special education is provided. Several changes have
occurred in secondary
education compared to the pre-war period: the previous
vocationally oriented education has been replaced with several groups and
types
of secondary schools - general programme secondary schools, technical schools,
art schools, pedagogical schools and religious
schools.
- Today
not only municipalities and cities but also private or legal persons from BiH or
from abroad, as well as religious communities,
can establish a secondary school
(for example, the following schools have been established:
Bošnjačka gimnazija - Bosniak general programme secondary
school; Catholic School Centre, Turkish College, Danish Technical School). The
approval for
establishing such schools is granted by the competent ministries at
the Entity level. According to statistical data for 1997, there
were 184
secondary schools with 128,422 pupils in FBiH. In RS, 88 secondary schools
were registered and 54,215 pupils attended classes
in the academic year 1998/99.
- The
educational profiles offered in existing types of school range from general
education that is obtained in general programme secondary
schools to technical
vocational training. Specialized education for professional work lasts one year
after secondary education,
which itself lasts three or four years depending on
the type of school. Art school lasts four years and provides secondary
education
for work or further education. The same applies to religious schools.
- Two-year
post-secondary education and university education is provided at two-year
post-secondary schools, faculties and art academies
according to an admission
quota. This quota is determined by the universities with the approval of the
cantonal governments in FBiH,
while in RS the Government defines the admission
plan upon a proposal by the Ministry of Education.
- Pupils’
and students’ standards of living are an integral part of the education
field. In this context, funds are allocated
for scholarships and student loans,
for subsidized accommodation in dormitories and food in restaurants and reduced
fares for transportation.
Textbook publication is co-financed in order to
improve the financial condition of the beneficiaries. However, the above
measures
are not sufficient and still do not provide equality and quality in
education. The material status of the pupil and student population
is just one
of the consequences of the current economic and political situation in BiH.
- A
lack of professional teaching staff has also been observed. Concerning the
gender structure of teaching staff, no cases of discrimination
have been
recorded at any level of education; female teachers are even dominant,
especially in elementary and secondary education.
- Research
shows that social expenditures for education are decreasing and the burden of
education increasingly falls on the family.
In BiH, the family merely survives.
The current situation does not provide a future or prospects for prosperity for
the majority
of young people. A serious problem in the whole of BiH is thus the
increasingly large number of young people who leave the country.
Most frequent violations of children’s rights in the
field of education
- A
large number of children and pupils are refugees and cannot return from abroad
to their pre-war homes and schools. The same is
true for displaced children
within the territory of BiH. Some efforts are made by the competent authorities
and schools to help
returnee children to reintegrate as easily and painlessly as
possible into the educational process and return to normal life.
- A
high number of children have a limited radius of movement and their life and
health are in danger in many areas where mines have
not been cleared. According
to some assessments, there are about 1 million mines in BiH with a lifetime of
50 years. Data from
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) suggest
that every month, 50 children in BiH suffer the consequences. The largest
number of mines is found around Sarajevo, Tuzla, Banja Luka, Zenica,
Mostar, Doboj, Brčko, etc. Although mine clearance activities
are being
implemented, results are still unsatisfactory. Mine clearance proceeds slowly
and dangers are present in many places.
International humanitarian
organizations, especially UNICEF and ICRC, work together with schools on
educating children about dangers
of mines. However, news of child suffering,
with discouraging epilogues, are frequent.
- Factors
influencing relations in the family and the environment in which the child grows
up include: educational neglect, neglect
and insufficient care by parents,
physical punishment, unemployment of a large number of parents, and serious
social problems of
many families.
- A
number of children, especially refugees, are not included in the educational
process, and there is an increasing danger that the
number of illiterate persons
among the young in BiH will increase. The causes are varied: an insufficient
number of schools and
devastation of existing ones, great distances between
school and home, difficult financial conditions, conservatism of some parents
regarding education of female children, children’s early marriage,
children’s participation in housework, etc.
- The
situation of children who belong to national minorities (opportunity to receive
education in the mother tongue, recognition in
the school curriculum of the
specific characteristics of all peoples, cultures and religions within BiH) is a
serious problem for
which best solutions are still being sought and which are
directly connected to the general political situation in BiH. In this
context,
the BiH Council of Ministers has raised the issue of the necessity of passing a
State law on national minorities. This
law is currently being drafted, and will
serve as a basis for improving the situation of this population group.
- The
financial condition of education is difficult due to the severe consequences of
war and a slow recovery of the economy. Salaries
of teachers are low and
irregular. There is a lack of equipment, teaching aides and financial funds for
overhead expenses in schools.
The many years of depressive conditions in the
field of education are a demotivating factor for the teaching staff and for
improving
the quality of education.
- The
general education of teachers is implemented through the teachers’
colleges and faculties, while teachers for vocational
and technical schools are
trained in other faculties. Due to the lack of teaching staff in FBiH, the work
of teacher-training schools
has been resumed.
- An
expert team of the Federation Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport,
together with professors from Pittsburgh University
(in the United States), has
prepared a study entitled “Strategic planning of the renewal of education
for teaching staff in
BiH”. Seminars for teachers are organized in which
participants get acquainted with modern learning methods and transfer of
knowledge, with education in democracy and child rights according to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child and with other topics.
- Regardless
of the difficulties which BiH society has faced in the post-war period, the
quality of education of young people in Bosnia
and Herzegovina is not
questionable, especially if the results that our pupils and students achieve in
local and world competitions
are taken into account. Education is not lagging
behind other countries to any greater extent, even though their technological
and
economic advantages are greater. The problem of Bosnia and Herzegovina is
not a deficit of professional staff but general disorientation
and inability to
use these professionals adequately. As they feel that they are not needed in
their country, a large number of educated
young people decide to look for their
future outside the borders of BiH.
1. Aims of education (art. 29)
- In
the current laws on elementary and secondary school and pre-school institutions,
educational aims are defined, however not to the
extent necessary. This is
especially true in terms of respect for human rights and freedoms, rights and
duties of children and learning
about building a democratic society. The
universal goals of education contained in the Charter of the United Nations, the
Convention
on the Rights of the Child and other international legal documents
state that children should be raised and educated for a responsible
life in a
free society based on the principles of peace, mutual understanding, tolerance,
gender equality, and friendship among peoples
and ethnic, religious and national
communities. These goals have not been incorporated, and should be recognized
in new laws.
- The
curricula and programmes at all educational levels include content on general
values of civilization and its achievements, adapted
to the child’s age.
The curricula and programmes determine goals and tasks, the elements, the volume
and the various forms
of educational work.
2. Leisure, recreation and cultural activities (art.
31)
- The
Child Care Law defines children’s rights in more detail. The State has
the obligation to create living conditions conducive
to proper psychophysical
development of the child. The essence of society’s care for children,
apart from education and preventive
health care, lies in creating preconditions
for adequate rest and recreation, such as cultural activities, sports activities
and
creative activities for children. Partial subsidies of the expenses of
children’s education in pre-school institutions is
an obligation of the
local community. Additionally, the Law defines conditions for exercising
children’s right to rest and
recreation in recreational centres, and these
expenses are subsidized depending on the financial condition of the family.
- In
elementary and secondary schools free activities are organized for pupils in
order to develop and strengthen their creative capabilities,
allowing them to
acquire positive habits and skills. Free activities for pupils are implemented
through clubs, associations, groups,
pupils’ cooperatives and other forms
of organizations, based on the principle of voluntary participation. A large
number of
schools have child choirs, art and/or music groups, folk groups, drama
associations, sports associations, etc. As a component of
extracurricular
activities, pupils’ competitions in various disciplines are organized.
There are also schools with active
and successful debate clubs where pupils are
taught communication skills, conflict resolution, and decision-making. Parts of
such
activities are accessible to wider audiences thanks to special television
broadcasts of pupils’ debate competitions that gather
schools and pupils
from various parts of BiH.
Concerning human rights education, including children’s rights and their
representation in the curriculum, it can be noted
that they are included to a
certain degree. There are still no special school subjects or programmes that
address human rights.
The same is true for sex education, which is represented
in schools only through some subjects (biology).
- Health
services and advice are partially available to pupils and students, which is
directly related to the general financial and
social conditions in both
education and other spheres of society.
- Many
non-governmental local and foreign humanitarian organizations that gave
considerable support to children during the war and continue
to do so today
participate in organizing children’s free time, supporting
children’s creativity and talent, promoting
children’s rights, and
cultural, art and sports activities.
- The
Law on Child Care defines the rights of children in more detail. The RS
government is obliged to create living conditions conducive
to the child’s
proper psychophysical development.
- Besides
education and preventive health care, the essence of society’s care for
children also lies in “nourishment, rest
and recreation, cultural, sport
and creative activities of children”. The local administration has an
obligation to subsidize
children’s education in pre-school institutions.
The law specifies conditions for the exercise of children’s right to
rest
and recreation in rest centres. The costs of pre-school children’s and
school age children’s education are subsidized
depending on the economic
situation of the family.
- Pre-school
education encompasses a very small number of children aged 3-6
(around 5 per cent), which means that this right is not
being
fulfilled, especially in small places and rural
areas.[1]
- The
Law on Direct Child Protection and the Law on Elementary Education define the
sport and recreational elements of a child’s
education, which are
implemented through the organization of active recreation, recovery in a better
climate and outdoor classes.
Due to lack of material resources in local
communities and school institutions, many of these rights of children are not
being fulfilled.
- The
elementary school work programme foresees creative work competitions: fine
arts, literary and music competitions (choirs and
orchestras). Competitions are
organized from school level to the level of the Entity and the best groups and
individuals receive
awards.
- As
a component of extracurricular activities, sports competitions are organized,
such as basketball competitions, football competitions
and handball
competitions, as well as competitions in chess - also from school level to the
Entity level.
- Elementary
school pupils are included in the work of scout groups, which organize creative
camps for children. In this way children’s
needs for rest and recreation
are met.
- Similar
to the event in the former Republic of Yugoslavia, Children’s Week is
organized in the first week of October. During
this week children participate
in cultural, educational and recreational events. During Children’s Week,
fundraising is organized
through the sale of postal stamps and proceeds from
theatre and cinema shows and other cultural and sports events. The funds
collected
are used for further development of this event and for funding of
humanitarian activities to help children.
- A
special law regulates the right of children and youth (up to 25 years of age) to
subsidized public transportation. Groups consisting
of a minimum of 15 children
pay 2030 per cent of the standard price when travelling for school
purposes. This also applies to academic
school excursions, travel in connection
with healthcare programmes, rest and recreation, as well as travel for
advancement of amateur
and recreational sports within the institutions promoting
physical culture. The subsidies are provided from the budget of the
Republic.
- With
the aim of actively engaging children in fine arts and to promote the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, a fine arts competition
dedicated to the rights of
the child has been organized. Several thousand pupils aged 7-15 have
participated in the competition.
- Creative
workshops are organized in schools, camps and during recreational classes.
These workshops are coordinated by experts in
working with children.
Participation in the workshops is voluntary, and they have proven to be very
creative and stimulating for
children.
- For
four years now, in the month of May, the Republic Pedagogical Institute
organizes a children’s song festival, as well as
folk dance, choir and
orchestra competitions for elementary and secondary schools.
- In
the present situation of extreme economic crisis, difficulties have been
encountered with regard to the full implementation of
article 31 of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child. The programmes of school institutions
and of organizations arranging activities
for children complement the efforts to
minimize the consequences of war and the post-war crisis for children’s
recreation,
rest, cultural activities and normal development.
- Schools
in the Republika Srpska are working under very complex conditions. Apart from
educational tasks, schools and staff working
with children also have to develop
activities in which the development of children’s inner world is a
priority. In addition,
the school should be a place of relaxation; a place
where, through studies, social activities and play, the consequences of the war
will be forgotten or at least alleviated as soon as possible.
- Children
are innocent, vulnerable, dependent, curious, active and hopeful. Their lives
should be filled with joy and peace, play,
learning and growing up. Their
future should be built in an atmosphere of harmony and cooperation. These words
of the World Declaration
on Survival, Protection and Development of Children are
a warning and a reminder of the mistakes adults make concerning children.
By
investing in the development of education and by creating premises for the
versatile development of young people, we invest in
the future of the world.
- In
FBiH, informal activities of students are organized in elementary and secondary
schools with the aim of developing and enhancing
creative capabilities and
positive habits and skills. Students have informal activities in clubs,
associations, groups, students’
cooperatives, and other forms of
organizations based on the principle of voluntary participation. A large number
of schools have
children’s choirs, fine arts sections, musical sections,
drama sections, folklore, sports societies and
similar.
- The
following international humanitarian organizations have assisted in the
implementation of creativity programmes for children:
SOS Kinderdorf
International, UMCOR, War Child, Solidarities, and others. The following local
humanitarian organizations have assisted
in these programmes: Naša djeca
BiH - the publishing of two books by children and literary and artistic
competitions; Pozorišna
scena - children’s theatre and
children’s radio programme; Palčići - children’s choir;
Naša djeca
Tuzla - participation in a musical competition in Paris - Prva
djećija ambasada Medaši - project “Children create”,
and
others.
- The
following international organizations have assisted in implementation of
programmes of cultural activities: War Child - the Pavarotti
music centre;
CRACH - cultural exchange; Open Society Institute - support to cultural
societies and cultural events; Equilibre -
a cultural programme in Sarajevo; La
Notte della Cometa - cultural activities, publishing, fine arts exhibitions;
Hilfe für
Kinder in Not - support to cultural events in Zenica; Bridge of
Peace - support to cultural activities; Human Relief International
- a cultural
centre in Breka; Aid Committee Kuwait - assistance to cultural, academic and
religious events; and others. The following
local humanitarian organizations
have assisted in implementation of cultural programmes: Feniks - shows for
children; Higia - picture
books for the elementary school “Osman
Hadžić”; Medoka - travelling theatre; La Benevolencija -
cultural activities
for children, and others.
- The
following international organizations have assisted in implementation of sport
activities programmes: American Refugee Committee
- construction of 1,000
playgrounds for children and reconstruction of gyms; Sprofondo - provision of
equipment for sport clubs;
Schüler Helfen Leben - provision of sport
equipment for clubs, organization of city competition in badminton; Dalla Parte
degli
Ultimi - reconstruction of gyms; Diakonisches Werk der Evangelischen
Kirche in Deutschland - reconstruction of playgrounds for children,
schools and
outpatient clinics. Assistance has also been extended by the following local
humanitarian organizations: Asocijacija
studenata fizićke kulture - sport
activities, participation in sport competitions; Djelujmo kroz sport, MHS -
support to students’
competitions; Škola fudbala
“Bubamara”; and others. The most important cultural and art events
for children in
schools are held during State and religious holidays, on
International Children’s Day and during Children’s Week.
- Several
local and international NGOs contributed greatly to children’s development
during the war, organizing their free time,
encouraging children’s
creativity and talents, promoting the rights of the child and organizing
cultural, artistic and sports
activities, and continue to do so today.
- The
following international humanitarian organizations assisted in organizing
children’s free time: UMCOR, Association DIA,
Catholic Relief Services,
Saudi High Commission for BiH, Al Haramain, Convoy of Mercy, Médecins
sans Frontières Holland,
Ministry Resource Network, Professionals
International, and others. The following local humanitarian organizations
provided assistance:
Naša djeca BiH Zenica, Tuzla, Sarajevo, Centar za
samopoudanje, Reth, Budi moj prijatelj, Djelujmo kroz sport and others.
- The
following international humanitarian organizations assisted in organizing
summer camps (vacations) for children: Consorzio Italiano
di
Solidarità, 1000 Enfants,
- Volkshilfe
Österreich, Prometee, Quatar Charitable Society, SOS, Injustice
International, and others, as well as the following
local humanitarian
organizations: Naša djeca BiH Zenica, Tuzla, Sarajevo, IKRE, Obrazovanje
gradi BiH, Fond otvoreno društvo
BiH and others.
- Links
and cooperation between our country and other countries are being established in
the domain of education and cultural activities.
Study visits for education
experts from the Federation of BiH to friendly countries and vice versa are
being organized with the
purpose of transferring knowledge and experience.
Cultural, artistic and sports groups and teams of mathematicians and physicians
are participating in competitions, festivals and summer camps, establishing
friendly relations between our children and children
from other countries.
- The
following international organizations have assisted in promoting the rights of
the child stipulated by the Convention on the Rights
of the Child by organizing
seminars, publishing the Convention and promotion material, and constructing
playgrounds: Save the Children
Denmark in cooperation with Save the Children
UK; Save the Children US and Save the Children Sweden - a seminar for NGOs in
Neum;
Save the Children Denmark and Save the Children US through playgrounds for
children and work on introducing children to the Convention
on the Rights of the
Child; Civitas (US), in cooperation with the Federation Ministry of Education,
Science, Sports and Culture -
the project “The basics of democracy”
in elementary and secondary schools, which so far has included 50,000 students
and teachers.
- The
Social and Child Care Bureau of the Federation Ministry for Social Welfare,
Displaced Persons and Refugees, with the financial
support of the UNICEF BiH
Office, has produced posters of “The UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child” and “Children,
learn about your rights”, in 3,000
copies each. The posters are intended for children and adults (professionals in
the fields
of culture, social work, education, law, health and others). The
posters contain the 42 most important articles of the Convention
and will be
distributed throughout the territory of the Federation of BiH, in all 10
cantons, especially to kindergartens, elementary
and secondary schools,
institutions of social and childcare, outpatient clinics, child clinics,
judicial and police organs, political
parties and government authorities.
- The
following local humanitarian organizations are engaged in the promotion,
protection and implementation of the rights of the child:
Naša djeca BiH
Tuzla, Zenica and Sarajevo base all its work on the Convention on the Rights of
the Child. The Centre for Protection
of the Rights of the Child is a part of
this organization. It has published a popular book for children entitled
First Human Rights Reader and a collection of poems entitled In the
World of Children’s Justice. They have organized a round table on
“Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Bosnia
and Herzegovina”.
Seminars for educators on the Convention have been
organized in five cantonal centres. A theatre play, entitled “I have my
rights” has been performed in Zenica. A Children’s Rights Forum
also operates in Tuzla.
- Soros
Open Society Institute BiH as part of its civil society programmes has supported
the Human Rights Bureau, the Helsinki Committee
for Human Rights and the Serb
Civic Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina. DJL CIPOS is implementing the
following programmes: search
for missing and exiled persons and protection of
human rights, SOS telephone, the round tables “The position of women in
society”
and “Current issues, problems and perspectives of families
in BiH”, a programme on ethnic minorities, a programme on
ethnic
conflicts, and a programme on ethnic history and culture.
- Budi
moj prijatelj (“Be my friend”), within its project
“Playground”, organized a knowledge quiz about the
Convention on the
Rights of the Child. A competition organized by Civitas was broadcast by NTV
99, TV Hayat, radio Glas Nade, radio
and TV BiH, and published in the newspaper
Večernje novine. Prva dječija ambasada - Medasi works on the
implementation of the following projects started during the war:
“Children
create”, return of refugee children, a
children’s village on the island of Lastovo, a club called
“Humanity Olympics”,
and others.
- UNICEF
is the umbrella organization that supports the work of NGOs for children in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially in activities
on promoting the Convention on
the Rights of the Child.
IX. SPECIAL PROTECTION MEASURES
- The
most vulnerable categories of children in BiH are refugee children, especially
children living in collective and reception centres,
child war victims and
wounded children, children without one or both parents, and abused children.
A. Refugee children (art. 22)
- Large
population movements in Bosnia and Herzegovina created a large exiled and
displaced population. It is believed that out of
the total number of displaced
persons in BiH 250,000 are children. It is stated in the reports of the BiH
Entities that refugee
children are taken care of within the governments’
possibilities and with the assistance of the international community. They
have
a right to health care and to education.
- With
the assistance of international humanitarian agencies and public health
institutes, research and several programmes have been
initiated in order to help
the most vulnerable children. However, no comprehensive programme has been
initiated yet which would
result in a significant improvement of
children’s conditions in the sense of increased care. The majority of the
population
in BiH live in difficult economic and social conditions, without
employment, income, and/or deprived of their property and their
homes, which, as
a rule, affects the family and the children the most.
- The
1996 census showed that in the territory of the Republika Srpska there
were 97,126 displaced children, specifically:
Age
|
Number of displaced children
|
0-5
|
30 318
|
7-14
|
47 817
|
15-18
|
18 991
|
Total
|
97 126
|
To this figure, the number of children living as refugees in more than 100
countries all over the world should be added. The number
varies depending on
the implementation of property laws in both Entities. The current estimate is
that in the RS 20 per cent of
the displaced population are children.
- Recognizing
all the specific aspects of the legal status of this category of persons, a
special law - The Law on Displaced Persons,
Refugees and Returnees in the RS
(“Official Gazette of the RS”, No. 33/98) - regulates the status,
rights and duties
of displaced persons, refugees and returnees; their return and
reintegration in society; bodies and organizations in charge of the
enforcement
of the Law; as well as other issues of importance for the protection of these
persons in the Republika Srpska. Provisions
of this law are fully harmonized
with international codes and conventions, and should in the first place provide
temporary accommodation,
nourishment, financial support, and establish the right
to social adaptation, the right to education, and other rights set forth
in the
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, annex 7 and the
international documents attached to annexes 4 and 6 of the
Dayton Agreement. It
needs to be underlined that refugees and returnees will enjoy the rights and
freedoms stipulated by the international
and domestic legislation equally with
other citizens of the Republika Srpska.
- The
funds for care of displaced persons, refugees and returnees are provided
depending on the RS budget resources. The funds for
implementation of the
rights of displaced persons, refugees and returnees can also be provided through
assistance by countries receiving
BiH refugees, by the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and by other relevant
international agencies,
as well as by donations or credits from international
financial institutions and through other sources.
- All
children with the status of a refugee or displaced person are covered regarding
compulsory education, and the right to financial
support depending on their
needs and on the financial capacity of the Republika Srpska or the capacity of
municipalities as the main
implementers of social protection of refugees and
displaced persons (article 24 of the Law).
- Health
care of refugee, returnee and displaced children is provided in the manner
determined in the Law (art. 10, item 12). The Law
stipulates that both refugees
and displaced persons are covered by compulsory insurance, unless they are
insured on a different basis
(article 53 of the Law obliges the Ministry
for Refugees and Displaced Persons to pay the contribution for persons referred
to in
article 10, item 12, of the Health Insurance Law).
Children in collective centres
- From
the perspective of humanitarian law, the swift dismantlement of collective
centres in both Entities constitutes a specific problem.
In addition to adults,
these centres accommodate a great number of children. Currently, 1,174 children
live in collective centres
in the
Republika Srpska.
Age
|
Number of children in collective centres
|
0-1
|
30
|
1-7
|
258
|
7-16
|
684
|
16-18
|
202
|
|
1 174
|
- The
RS National Assembly has introduced a programme of dismantlement of collective
centres, and the Government of the Republika Srpska
has developed a financial
plan and operational measures for implementation of the programme. However, due
to belated transfer of
funds, the programme will not be implemented at the
planned pace.
- Children’s
living standards in the collective centres is very low. This is illustrated by
the following facts:
- − Most
collective centres are buildings that before the war were schools,
workers’ quarters, hotels, hospitals, kindergartens
or military barracks,
and as they have been used as collective centres for a long time, they are now
uninhabitable due to inadequate
maintenance;
- − The
number and structure of groups accommodated in collective centres is
inappropriate. Collective centres often accommodate
not only children but also
chronically ill persons (see the overview on chronically ill persons by
collective centres), due to lack
of space;
- − Despite
the programme for dismantlement of collective centres adopted by the National
Assembly, the dismantlement is being
carried out slowly due to lack of funds.
- The
highest concentration of persons in collective centres is in Višegrad,
where there are 14 collective centres accommodating
1,909 refugees and
displaced people. In other collective centres as well, the number of persons is
large. Collective centres are
partly supported from the Republika Srpska
budget. However, without international donors - in the first place UNHCR, the
World Food
Programme (WFP), the Humanitarian Aid Office of the European
Commission (ECHO), USAID, ICRC and others - living in collective centres
would
be impossible.
- The
monthly food budget is KM 13.59 per capita, which is the minimum average
consumer’s basket of foods. Nourishment of elderly
people and people with
poor health (diabetics, persons suffering from stomach problems), i.e. all
persons needing special nourishment,
constitute a specific problem. Concerning
children, the problem becomes more complex, because no international or RS
agency distributes
or supplies food to this category of persons. (See the
overview of age structure of children in RS.) Problems related to nourishment
of people accommodated in collective centres are further complicated by the
termination of the contract on food and maintenance concluded
between UNHCR and
Action Contre la Faim (ACF) in March 2000. It is certain only that Catholic
Refugee Service (CRS) and USAID will
be extending continuous assistance to
collective centres until the end of 2000. Time will tell whether these funds
and the funds
from the RS budget will be sufficient.
- The
number of displaced children and youth who temporarily live in the Federation of
BiH is around 200,000. This includes children
who lived in the Federation of
BiH before the war but who still do not have an opportunity to return to their
pre-war homes, as well
as children who lived in municipalities in the territory
of today’s Republika Srpska.
- The
status of refugee gives children abroad the right to adequate temporary
accommodation, food, financial assistance, social adaptation
and psychological
support, health care, education, and the fulfilment of other basic needs.
- Due
to the situation in BiH during and after the war, the rights of refugee children
are more adequately fulfilled than the rights
of displaced children. This is
primarily due to better financial conditions abroad, and to the higher level of
development of the
judiciary in host countries.
- All
refugee children are included in compulsory education, and assistance includes
the provision of school material, clothing, footwear,
housing, food, and other
forms of assistance.
- The
fulfilment of the rights of displaced children is limited and depends on
financial conditions, which vary in the Federation of
BiH from canton to canton.
Not a single child is exempt from the right to education, health care and
minimum material assistance.
Meeting greater needs is not dependent on
legislation but on material conditions and the necessary financial resources,
which are
secured from the budgets intended for these purposes. The existing
Law on Displaced Persons and Refugees of the Federation regulates
these issues,
along with a new law that is currently being passed; this law does not regulate
this matter in a different manner,
but upholds the existing rights.
- It
should be emphasized that children without both or one parent regularly receive
- financial resources permitting - certain additional
financial assistance from
earmarked funds under special programmes provided by many international and
local organizations.
B. Children in armed conflict (art. 38)
- The
obligations that were accepted by the State as a signatory to the Convention on
the Rights of the Child, especially article 38,
are respected in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. According to this law persons that are under 15 years may not be
recruited into the armed
forces to participate in armed conflicts. Bosnia and
Herzegovina is a signatory to the Optional Protocol of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
- According
to the Defence Laws of FBiH and RS, conscientious objection is allowed for
conscripts who do not wish to carry out military
duties. Those persons are
obliged to carry out other, civil service duties determined by the law. The
difference is that these
persons do not carry weapons and do not apply any force
against others.
- The
Federation Defence Law regulates the institution of military service. Military
service includes conscription, the actual military
service, and reserve service.
Conscript service begins at the commencement of the calendar year in which a
citizen reaches 18 years
of age, and lasts until the beginning of his military
service. A conscript can be conscripted at his request in the calendar year
in
which he reaches 17 years. In case of immediate war threat or state of war, the
members of the Presidency of the Federation of
BiH may issue an order for
conscription of persons who are 16 years of
age.
- The
Defence Law of the Federation of BiH fully recognizes the commitments the State
of Bosnia and Herzegovina assumed as a signatory
to the Convention on the Rights
of the Child, especially its article 38. According to this law, it is
impossible to draft persons
who are 15 years of age or younger and include them
in armed conflict as members of the armed forces of the Federation of BiH.
- Article
81 of the Defence Law of FBiH allows conscientious objection by a military
conscript who, due to his religious or moral beliefs,
is not ready to
participate in carrying out his military duties in the army of FBiH. These
persons are obliged to fulfil other duties
of civil service as stipulated by
law. During his service a civil service conscript enjoys the same rights as a
soldier in military
service, except that he does not carry weapons and does not
apply force against other people.
C. Administration of juvenile justice (art. 40)
Definition of juvenile offence
- The
term “juvenile offence” is applied here in its narrow sense,
signifying only juvenile behaviour that includes violations
of criminal
provisions. Juvenile misdemeanour or similar is in this context regarded as
less important. Though criminal acts committed
by juveniles in most cases do
not have severe consequences, juvenile criminal behaviour is of importance. The
reason is that adult
offenders are most frequently recruited among juvenile
offenders. In addition, by studying the scope, structure and dynamics of
juvenile offence the level of success of society’s care of youth in
general can be established.
- Juvenile
offence has a range of characteristics in common with adult delinquency. Due to
many specific qualities, especially the
criminal and sociological aspects, it is
considered a special category and requires special treatment in criminal law.
In order
to sentence a minor additional information is necessary relating to the
minor’s personality, mental development, psychological
characteristics,
health condition, living environment, etc. Establishing such facts is the main
activity of all authorities that
participate in criminal procedures for minors.
- According
to the provisions of criminal law, persons under 14 are considered children and
no punitive sanctions can be applied against
them. When it is determined in the
procedure that a minor at the time of the execution of a punishable act was
under 14, the criminal
procedure is suspended and the guardianship authority is
informed.
- The
following can be ordered against a minor who commits a criminal offence:
disciplinary measures (court reprimand or commitment
to a disciplinary centre
for minors); measures of increased supervision (by parents, adopter or guardian,
in another family or by
the competent authority of social welfare);
institutional measures (commitment to an educational institution, correctional
facility
or other institution for training); as well as measures of protective
supervision with a conditional sentence (medical treatment
in an appropriate
health institution, abstention from use of alcohol or narcotics, visiting
certain health clinics or counselling
offices,
etc.).
- The
implementation of educational measures is difficult in both BiH Entities. This
is due to the fact that many of the facilities
necessary to carry out these
measures in a professional and qualified way have been devastated due to the
war, or were used for military
or other purposes and have not yet been
rehabilitated.
- In
exceptional cases, juvenile perpetrators of offences can be sentenced to prison.
A prison sentence can be ordered for an older
juvenile who committed an offence
for which the law calls for a sentence of less than five years in cases where
grave consequences
of the act and a high level of criminal responsibility
warrant more than a corrective measure.
- Special
juvenile courts do not exist; however, all courts in the territory of FBiH have
councils for juveniles and, in first-instance
courts, judges for juveniles
(these are permanent judges of the court with the specific task to fulfil this
obligation). A juvenile
panel in the firstinstance procedure consists of three
members: a judge for juveniles and two jury-judges, who should be professors,
teachers, psychologists, youth counsellors or similar, with experience in
educating young people. In the second instance the panel
consists of two judges
and three jury-judges.
- A
juvenile cannot be sentenced in absentia. When acting in the presence of a
juvenile, the bodies participating in the proceedings
are obliged to act
carefully, taking into account the juvenile’s mental development,
sensitivity and personal characteristics.
If it is necessary to establish a
juvenile’s health condition, his/her level of psychological development
and profile, medical
doctors, pedagogues, and psychiatrists examine him/her to
give their opinion. This can be carried out in a health institution or
other
institution. Trials against juveniles are never open to the public.
- A
criminal proceeding against a juvenile is instituted for an offence only at the
request of a public prosecutor. The guardianship
authority is notified of any
proceedings instituted.
- Only
a lawyer can defend a juvenile and no one can be exempt from the duty of
testimony for assessment of a juvenile’s mental
development and
personality and the circumstances under which he/she lives.
- A
juvenile is summoned to appear in court through parents or legal
representatives.
- Without
the court’s permission, the court proceedings, or rulings made in these
proceedings may not be publicized.
- Juveniles
serve juvenile prison sentences in special punitive-correctional facilities or
in special departments for juveniles in punitive-correctional
facilities in
which they can reside until they reach 23 years of age. If the sentence has not
been completed by that time, they
are sent to a punitive-correctional facility
where adult persons serve their prison sentence.
- In
punitive-correctional facilities for juveniles, or punitive-correctional
facilities with special departments for juveniles, elementary
schools for adults
and secondary schools are established. Alternatively, elementary and secondary
education of convicted juveniles
is
- provided
in cooperation with other educational organizations. If a punitive-correctional
facility has no such school, the juvenile
convict can, under the supervision of
his/her guardians, exceptionally attend such school outside the institution for
the purpose
of completing his/her education. Juvenile convicts in
punitive-correctional facilities are provided the opportunity for physical
exercise. Their correspondence with their parents and other close relatives may
not be restricted. Juveniles can be granted leave
twice a year at a maximum,
and each time it can last for 14 days.
- During
the period of correctional measures, the institution or social welfare body
where the measure is being served is obliged to
record observations of the
juvenile’s behaviour, methods of enforcement of the measures, and the
relationship between a juvenile
and his/her parents, adopter, or guardian.
- In
an educational-correctional facility a juvenile is entitled to three meals a
day, and he/she will be allowed to purchase food,
personal hygiene items,
newspapers and other necessary items for everyday life from his/her own money in
the canteen of the institution.
- In
case of a serious disease, the educational-correctional institution sends
him/her for medical treatment and informs the juvenile
judge, parents, adopter,
or guardian. If the educational-correctional institution is not equipped with
medical treatment for the
disease, the juvenile is sent to a clinic, to a
special hospital department of a punitive-correctional home, or, in case of
emergency,
to the closest medical facility.
- The
Federation of BiH has no single institution in which a juvenile perpetrator of
an offence can serve a sentence in an educational-correctional
facility.
(Before the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the institutional measure of
committing a juvenile to an educationalcorrectional
facility was carried out in
the educational-correctional facility for male juveniles in Banja Luka, which
now belongs to the other
Entity.)
- According
to information obtained from the courts in the territory of the Federation of
BiH, offences in which children are the perpetrators
are dramatically
increasing. During the period 1992-1996, a total of 2,675 cases were
registered, in which 3,743 juvenile perpetrators
participated in offences. The
most numerous offences are offences against property and crimes against life and
body in which older
and younger juveniles participated equally. It is worrying
that the group of juvenile perpetrators of offences includes a large
number of
recidivists. This creates a permanent habit and inclination to perform criminal
acts and is an increased threat to society.
- Due
to difficulties in implementing the measures of committing juveniles to
educationalcorrectional institutions, the courts have
avoided pronouncing such
measures in the past fouryear period. Only around 30 measures have been ordered
and none of them has been
enforced, which is the reason for an increasing
tendency of recidivism among juvenile perpetrators. If the conditions
contributing
to juvenile delinquency (war, loss of parents) are added, it can be
concluded that the situation in this field is very
unsatisfactory.
- Due
to all the facts presented, and in an attempt to stop this unsatisfactory trend
of increased juvenile delinquency, it would be
necessary, along with other
measures, to establish an Institute for the Re-education of Juveniles in the
Federation of BiH.
- The
educational measure of “commitment to an education institution” is
not being implemented either. Before the war in
Bosnia and Herzegovina this
measure was implemented for male juveniles in the Institute for Education at
Hum, Sarajevo, and for female
juveniles in the Institute for Education in
Ljubuški. The necessary conditions for this measure have
not been created yet since
these facilities were either devastated or
were used for military purposes.
Special provisions on juveniles in the RS legislation
- Juvenile
offence has a series of characteristics in common with crimes committed by
adults. However, due to its many particular features,
it has been singled out,
especially in criminal sociology, as a separate category. The peculiar nature
of juvenile offence is reflected
primarily in the personal characteristics
of juvenile offenders; secondly in the phenomenology and etiology of juvenile
crime in
criminal policy, with a prevailing application of
educational-correctional measures in the process of resocialization and an
exceptional
application of repression and juvenile prison; thirdly in the
preventive measures taken by the local administration with the aim
of
eradicating the causes of juvenile offence. As a result of these efforts and
societal care of young people, there are separate
chapters of the criminal law
(substantive and procedural law) on juvenile offenders with the purpose
“to, by extending protection
and assistance to juvenile offenders, by
supervising them and providing professional training and working to develop
their personal
responsibility, ensure their upbringing and proper
development” (article 74 of the Criminal Code of the Republika Srpska),
as
well as to influence them and other juveniles not to commit offences in the
future.
- The
Criminal Code of the Republika Srpska distinguishes between several categories
of juveniles, depending on their age. The criminal
proceedings against a
juvenile who at the time of committing a criminal act had not reached the age of
14 are suspended, but the
guardianship authority is informed of the committed
offence. Only correctional/disciplinary measures (reprimand or commitment to
a
juvenile disciplinary centre), measures of increased supervision (by parents or
guardians, another family member or by the guardianship
authority) or
institutional measures (commitment to an educational institution, a correctional
facility or an institution for juveniles)
can be imposed on younger juveniles
(from 14 to 16 years of age). Correctional measures, and, exceptionally, a
juvenile prison sentence
of not less than 1 or more than 10 years, and not
longer than the punishment foreseen for the criminal act, can be ordered for
older
juveniles (from 16 to 18 years of age).
- When
choosing the correctional measure the court considers the age of the juvenile;
the level of his/her mental development; his/her
psychological characteristics;
his/her inclinations; the motives which made him/her commit the criminal act;
previous education;
his/her environment and living circumstances so far;
severity of the criminal act; whether a corrective measure or punishment has
been ordered previously against him/her; and all other circumstances that may
influence the ordering of the measure that will achieve
the purpose of
correction most appropriately.
Disciplinary measures
- It
emerges from the nature of correctional measures of a disciplinary character, as
well as from the legal provisions for their imposition
that these measures
should apply to those juvenile offenders whose illegal action is not a result of
a high level of educational
neglect. These are juveniles whose offences are, as
a rule, committed as a result of a lack of sense of personal responsibility
for
their acts, and whose sense for social discipline is not developed. The
committed criminal act is thus rather a result of hastiness
and recklessness
than of educational neglect. The application of these educational measures also
operates according to the assumption
that the juvenile offender lives in a
social environment that ensures his/her proper development, so that separation
from his/her
environment is not necessary.
- A
judicial reprimand is ordered if considered sufficient for the committed
offence. Once the measure is ordered, the juvenile will
be warned of the
harmfulness of his/her act and he/she will be informed that a different measure
will be ordered should repetition
occur.
- Commitment
to a juvenile disciplinary centre is ordered when it is necessary to exert
influence on the juvenile’s personality
and conduct through appropriate
short-term measures. He/she can be sent to the centre:
- − A
certain number of hours on holidays (four holidays in a row at most);
- − A
certain number of hours during the day (for a month at most); or
- − For a
continuous stay for a set number of days (20 days at most).
Measures of increased supervision
- Increased
supervision measures are most appropriate for juvenile offenders in case of a
high level of educational neglect due to insufficient
care and supervision, and
when the committed offence is a result of such neglect. Such measures are
enforced out of institutions,
and they suppose that the family and social
environment in which the juvenile lives is suitable for his/her education and
proper
development. These measures include:
- − Increased
supervision by parents, adopter or guardian, ordered if the parents, adopter or
guardian have failed to exercise
supervision over the juvenile and are capable
of exercising such supervision. The court may order certain duties with regard
to
educational measures, treatment and elimination of conditions harmful to
him/her;
- − Increased
supervision in another family, ordered if the parents, guardian or adopter are
not able to exercise supervision
over the juvenile or if they cannot be expected
to do so. The juvenile is then handed over to another family willing to accept
him/her
and to exercise increased supervision over him/her. The measure will be
suspended when parents, guardians or adopters are able to
exercise supervision
over him/her or when the results of the measure are such that the need for
increased supervision has ceased;
- − Increased
supervision by the social welfare authorities, ordered if parents, adopter or
guardian are not able to exercise
increased supervision over the juvenile, and
conditions for handing the juvenile over to another family are not in place.
The juvenile
will then be placed under the supervision of the social welfare
authority. The court will subsequently decide on the cessation of
the measure,
which cannot last less than one or more than three years. In the course of
carrying out the measure, the juvenile stays
with his/her family, and the
increased supervision over him/her is exercised by the person authorized by the
social welfare centre,
who takes care of the education of the juvenile, his/her
employment, his/her separation from an environment that has a harmful influence
on him/her, treatment needed and improving his/her living circumstances.
- When
pronouncing some of the correctional measures for increased supervision, the
court can assign the juvenile one or several separate
duties such as: apology
to the damaged party; payment for the damage within the limits of his/her
possibilities; regular school
attendance; and abstention from alcohol or
narcotics consumption.
Institutional measures
- Institutional
educational measures include placement of a juvenile offender in an appropriate
institution for a relatively long period
of time, where he/she is subject to
appropriate educational and correctional treatment. Two circumstances are
decisive for the application
of institutional correctional measures: the degree
of educational neglect of the juvenile offender and the situation in the
community
where he/she lives. The application of these measures should be
considered for juvenile offenders who are neglected to the extent
that their
condition cannot be improved by increased supervision measures, and more lasting
measures of education, correction and
medical treatment are called for.
- These
measures are carried out in the appropriate institutions and by professional
staff:
- − Commitment
of a juvenile to an educational institution - the court will send a juvenile for
whom it is necessary to provide
constant supervision by professional counsellors
to a correctional institution for juveniles;
- − The
juvenile stays in the educational institution for a period of time not shorter
than six months and not longer than three
years. When ordering this measure,
the court will not determine its duration; the duration is decided upon by the
court subsequently
depending on results achieved;
- − Commitment
of a juvenile to a correctional institution - a measure for juvenile offenders
who, because of a higher level of
neglect, are in need of more permanent and
systematic education and correction, and who, because of the negative influence
of their
environment, need to be separated from the environment in which they
live. The grounds for a decision to send a juvenile to a correctional
institution are a serious offence by a juvenile who is neglected to a large
extent, and especially if correctional
- − measures
or juvenile prison have been ordered against him/her earlier. This measure
lasts for a minimum of one year and a
maximum of five years. When ordering this
measure the court does not determine its duration in advance. On the basis of
the reports
of the institution where the measure is implemented, it subsequently
decides on the cessation of the measure or its substitution
with some other
correctional measure;
- − Commitment
of a juvenile to a training institution - this is a special institutional
measure ordered against juvenile offenders
with physical or mental developmental
disabilities. This measure is ordered only if conditions are identical to those
by which a
juvenile is sentenced to a correctional institution.
Juvenile prison
- Juvenile
prison is a special sentence of deprivation of freedom. By some of its
characteristics, it is similar to the sentence of
imprisonment ordered for adult
offenders. This sentence may be ordered if the following three conditions have
been met:
- − The
offender is an older juvenile, i.e. a person who at the time of committing the
offence had reached the age of 16, but
not the age of 18;
- − The
older juvenile has committed an offence for which the prescribed sentence is
more than five years of imprisonment;
- − The
offender is criminally accountable.
- Older
juveniles serve juvenile prison sentences in special correctional facilities
where they can stay until their twenty-third birthday.
If they have not
served their sentence by this time, they will be sent to a correctional
facility for adults to serve the remainder
of their sentence. This
sentence is ordered for a period that cannot be shorter than 1 or longer
than 10 years.
- There
is a need to revise the position of juveniles in the criminal legislation. The
reasons for this are found above all in the
increase and change in the structure
of juvenile offences in our region. Furthermore, domestic arrangements should
comply with modern
legislative trends and be harmonized with international
documents.
- The
reform of juvenile criminal law has to be an integral part of a clearly designed
criminal policy towards juveniles, as a set of
preventive and repressive
measures which society applies in an effort to combat crime. Such a reform
should correspond to the degree
of society’s development; it should be
based on defined academic principles; and it should represent a coherent
totality with
clearly defined aims, if possible for a relatively long period of
time.
- The
Criminal Code of the Republika Srpska has stipulated a wide range of corrective
measures to be ordered against juvenile offenders.
However, besides the court
reprimand as a disciplinary measure and some measures of increased supervision,
other corrective measures
almost never occur in practice. The reasons for this
are to be found in the lack of institutions such as disciplinary centres and
especially in the lack of correctional facilities.
- Certain
privileges are stipulated for adults who have committed an offence at the time
when they were younger juveniles and had not
reached the age of 21 at the time
of the trial. Such persons can be tried only for offences for which the
prescribed sentence is
longer than five years of imprisonment and only a
corresponding institutional corrective measure can be ordered against them.
- The
authorities participating in the proceedings against juveniles “are
obliged to act carefully, taking into consideration
the juvenile’s mental
development, sensitivity and personal characteristics, ensuring that the
criminal proceedings do not
have a harmful effect on the development of the
juvenile” (article 454 of the Law on Criminal Procedure). A juvenile
cannot
be tried in absentia, can have a lawyer from the beginning of the
criminal procedure, and has to have a lawyer if she/he is tried
for an offence
for which the prescribed sentence of imprisonment is longer than five years, or
if the juvenile judge decides that
the juvenile needs a lawyer.
- Juveniles
are tried by special juvenile panels. At first and second instance courts,
except in the Supreme Court of the Republika
Srpska, panels consist of juvenile
judges and two juryjudges selected among professors, teachers, counsellors and
others with experience
in education of youth. Penal action against juveniles
can be initiated only at the request of the public prosecutor. If a criminal
act is prosecuted under a private lawsuit, the damaged party has to submit a
proposal to the public prosecutor for institution of
proceedings. For minor
offences for which the prescribed sentence is imprisonment of up to three years,
the public prosecutor can
decide not to request that proceedings be instituted
if she/he considers that it would not be purposeful (the principle of
opportunity).
She/he takes into account the nature of the offence, the
circumstances under which the criminal act was committed and the personal
characteristics of the juvenile. For personal characteristics she/he can
request necessary information from the parents or guardian
of the juvenile, or
from other persons and institutions. If the public prosecutor fails to file a
request to institute criminal
proceedings, the damaged party or the guardianship
authority can request that the juvenile panel do so.
- The
guardianship authority has the right to follow the entire course of the
proceedings, to submit proposals and to bring to the attention
of the court
facts and evidence of importance for a just decision. The preliminary
proceedings include examination of circumstances
necessary to evaluate the level
of mental development of the juvenile, his/her environment and his/her living
circumstances; if necessary,
relevant experts will be consulted (physicians,
psychologists, pedagogues or competent persons from medical and other
institutions).
Juveniles will be detained only exceptionally, when reasons for
this exist under the law, and as a rule, juveniles serve detention
separated
from adults. Juvenile trials are not public. However, if the court does not
reach a decision in a panel session, the
parents of the juvenile, the guardian
or a representative of the guardianship authority are invited to the main trial.
The court
may also allow for the trial to be attended by persons working on
protection and education of juveniles and combating juvenile crime,
as well as
academics.
- The
proceedings against a juvenile are urgent, and an extension of the foreseen time
frame is possible only in exceptional cases upon
approval by the court
president. A verdict is reached when a punishment of a juvenile is ordered,
while in other cases (when the
procedure is suspended or a corrective measure is
ordered) a decision is issued. The decision indicates the measure that is
ordered,
but the juvenile is not declared guilty of the act she/he is charged
with. Persons authorized to lodge an appeal can do this on
behalf of the
juvenile even against his/her will. Extraordinary legal remedies can be used (a
request for protection of legality
or a request for a retrial) against a legally
effective court decision, and when a sentence of juvenile imprisonment has been
ordered,
a request for extraordinary re-examination of the legally effective
verdict can be filed.
- Corrective
measures are enforced under the supervision of the court. The management of the
institution where the measure is being
carried out is obliged to submit a report
on the conduct of the juvenile to the court every six months, and the juvenile
may receive
visits by a juvenile judge. Supervision over enforcement of other
corrective measures is exercised through juvenile judges, who
obtain information
on the enforcement of the measures through the guardianship authorities or court
professionals. One of the reasons
why this is necessary is that under certain
conditions stipulated in the law the court is authorized to suspend the
enforcement of
a corrective measure, replace it with a different measure or make
other changes. The court may even decide not to enforce a corrective
measure if
a certain time has passed since it was ordered and its enforcement has not yet
started.
- The
Criminal Code of the Republika Srpska has only defined general rules related to
juvenile offenders, and they are elaborated in
the Special Section of the
Criminal Code of the Republika Srpska (provisions on corrective measures and
punishment for juveniles).
The criminal proceedings against juveniles are fully
regulated in the Law on Criminal Procedure, and provisions on enforcement of
criminal sanctions are contained in the Law on Enforcement of Criminal
Sanctions.
1. Children in conflict with the law (arts. 37 and 40)
- In
the Criminal Procedure Law a special procedure is stipulated for minors who have
committed a criminal offence and who were under
21 at the time the criminal
procedure was initiated.
- According
to the FBiH report on juvenile offence, an increase has been observed in
the number of children who commit offences. The
most frequent offences are
related to property (robbery, aggravated theft, burglary, etc.). In 1997,
one case of murder by a minor
was registered. The RS report for 1995-1998
indicates a decrease in offences for the age group under 18, while in
1998 the tendency
was again upwards. Republika Srpska gives
approximate data for general delinquency in its report for the period from
1995 to 1998:
the average share of juvenile offences in overall crime is 3
per cent (by years: 1995 - 4.63 per cent; 1996 - 2.48 per cent; 1997
-
1.98 per cent and 1998 - 2.92 per cent). The Federation of BiH gave the
following data for the period from 1992 to 1997: 4,702
was the total number of
reported offences by minors; for 1997, it was 1,343 or 14.7 per cent.
2. Physical and psychological recovery and social
reintegration (art. 39)
- A
large number of wounded and disabled children who lost either parents or close
family members during the war, who were expelled
from their homes and towns, who
were tortured in concentration camps or raped, etc. suffered difficult
psychological and health consequences.
Many international organizations and
local humanitarian organizations have worked on mental care through psychosocial
projects in
the form of counselling offices and clubs for children and young
people that contribute to children’s reintegration.
D. Economic exploitation of children, including child labour
(art. 32)
- According
to the provisions of the Law on Basic Employment Rights, a person under the age
of 18 and who is generally in good health
can be employed, but the lower age
limit for employment is 15 years of age. In the Employment Law it is stipulated
that the annual
vacation for a worker under 18 is increased by 7 days so that it
cannot be shorter than 25 working days.
- According
to existing rules, a worker who is under 18 is not allowed to perform difficult
physical labour, labour underground or under
water, nor other activities that
could have harmful effects or pose an increased risk to health and life of a
worker under 18 due
to his/her psychophysical characteristics. According to the
legislation in BiH, a worker under 18 cannot be requested to work more
than full
time. Furthermore, a worker who is under 18 and works in the areas of industry,
civil engineering or transportation cannot
work at night between 22.00 and 06.00
hours unless it is required in the general interest, due to difficult
circumstances and under
strictly determined conditions that are, for the other
workers, determined by the Law on Protection at Work.
1. Drug addiction (art. 33)
- The
situation regarding abuse of various pharmaceuticals among the young population
is disturbing. Many become drug addicted, first
to soft drugs and when they get
older, usually before reaching the age of 30, they become permanently addicted
to hard drugs. The
causes for this lie in a lack of broader social action for
prevention, lack of professional staff, lack of care on the part of parents
and
schools, etc.
- In
FBiH, activities are under way for the preparation of working materials for the
passage of a Federation law on the production and
dealing of narcotics.
- In
the period 1992-1998, the Federal Ministry for the Interior registered 263
persons suspected of criminal offences related to drugs
(unauthorized production
and dealing in narcotics and facilitating the use of narcotics). Only four
minors were among these persons.
- In
the report from the Republika Srpska it is stated that police and health workers
are the ones most involved in the prevention of
narcotics use. For the time
being no data exist on the number of consumers since consumers are still not
addicts and statistics
reflect only the number of the latter. The statistics
even registered a decrease in drug addiction. It is considered that prevention
is the basic and appropriate medicine against the disease of drug
addiction.
2. Sexual exploitation and abuse (art. 34)
- According
to the current criminal legislation, the following is considered abuse: abuse
of position, rape, procuring or coercion
to prostitution, marriage with a minor
person, incest, statutory rape, indecent acts and showing pornographic material.
In the Entity
report there are still no data on sexual exploitation of minors,
nor are there any data on prevention that would successfully control
prostitution, sexual exploitation and abuse of minors. Bosnia and Herzegovina
has signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention
on the Rights of the Child on
the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
E. Minority children (art. 30)
- Article
II.4. of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina concerning nondiscrimination
underlines that enjoyment of the rights and freedoms stipulated in this article
or in the international treaties listed in annex I to the Constitution is
ensured for all persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina, without discrimination on any
ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion,
political or other belief,
ethnic or social background, connection with a national minority, property,
birth or any other status.
The adoption of a law on protection of national
minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina is under way and will create the necessary
legal framework for the exercise of their rights.
- Since
no census has been carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war there are
no certain indicators of the number of individuals
belonging to national
minorities, but in prewar law the following were mentioned: Albanians,
Montenegrins, Czechs, Italians, Jews,
Hungarians, Macedonians, Germans, Poles,
Roma, Romanians, Russians, Ruthenians, Slovaks, Slovenians, Turks, and
Ukrainians.
- The
Entity laws concerning elementary and secondary schools allow members of a
national minority to receive classes in their mother
tongue, provided there are
at least 20 pupils speaking the language of that minority. In elementary and
secondary schools in which
pupils of just one nationality are educated, all
classes are taught in the language of that nationality, with the obligatory
mastering
of the language in which the classes are taught.
F. Statistics in the Republika Srpska
- Data
on juvenile offenders are not reliable. Though both substantive and procedural
criminal law have reached an enviable level of
development, statistical data
show that practice does not follow the efforts of the legislators. Comparative
updated data in this
field are difficult to collect in the Republika
Srpska.
- There
are only two sources of data showing the scope, dynamics and structure of
offences in the Republika Srpska. On the basis of
incomplete statistical
reports from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Public Prosecutor’
Office, some indications of
juvenile offence can be provided for a shorter
period of time. As a narrow territorial framework for this analysis the urban
area
of Banja Luka has been chosen because it is realistic to presume that the
highest concentration of juvenile offence is to be found
there. It is generally
known that urban areas, due to their specific characteristics, are areas where
crime is more frequent than
in other communities, because of the
“appeal” of urban areas as well as the presence of different
elements of social
disorganization that are conducive to the manifestation of
different forms of deviant behaviour. The aim is to illustrate manifestations
of criminal behaviour in an urban community, which, through its specific
influence, also contributes to the occurrence of undesirable
behaviour in young
persons.
- In
order to show the scope of crime in a population of offenders, it is necessary
to establish its proportional share of crime. The
scope of crime among
juveniles with a specific criminal status can be shown by establishing its
proportional share in the total number
of
- registered
criminal offenders over a certain period of time and in a certain territory. A
relatively comprehensive, but incomplete
picture of the scope of juvenile
offence is gathered in this way. Another factor contributing to a certain
incompleteness of the
statistical data on juvenile offence is the fact that
minor property crimes or similar negative behaviour, often committed in school
or even in the family, often remain unreported or not officially registered.
Given these specific aspects of the registration and
monitoring of juvenile
offence, the related statistical data should rather be used as an orientation
than a definite indicator of
the situation in the observed field.
- In
order to determine the scope of juvenile offence, the proportional share of
juvenile offenders in relation to the total number
of registered criminal
offenders in the Republika Srpska for the period 1995 to 1998 will be presented
below.
- The
data show that juveniles’ share of general crime is 3 per cent on average
(in 1995 4.63 per cent; in 1996 - 2.48 per cent;
and
in 1998 - 2.92 per cent). Juveniles formerly had a much larger share in the
overall crime in other republics on the territory
of the former Yugoslavia. By
comparing these data, it can be concluded that in the Republika Srpska the share
of juveniles in the
overall crime rate has decreased considerably, though it has
to be borne in mind that using different statistics can result in discrepancies
regarding the scope of the observed phenomenon. Though the share of juvenile
offenders is expected to be considerably less than
the share of adults, the
presented data do not suggest that less attention should be devoted to this type
of offence. It has to
be taken into consideration that this is the youngest
population of offenders (with the exception of children), and that an early
manifestation of negative behaviour can be a prognosis for potential relapse at
an older age.
- If
crime trends in the under-18 age group for the period 1995-1998 are analysed, a
declining trend is noticeable. This is especially
evident if the situation in
1995 (281 juvenile offenders out of a total number of 6,064 criminal offenders)
is compared with the
trend in 1998 (171 out of 5,843). The trend of
juvenile offence for the observed period in the territory of the Republika
Srpska
shows a decline in the period 1995-1997 and signs of increase in
1998.
- The
causes of the trends in juvenile offence up to 1997 are difficult to explain in
detail. The decrease in the level of offence
in this age category may be
conditioned by various circumstances. For example, it may be a result of an
increase in the number of
unidentified offenders who belong to this age group
(increase in the “hidden figures” of crime), which would
automatically
contribute to a decrease in the number of offenders in the
statistical records. However, the above tendency may be the result of
enhanced
achievements of the authorities in combating crime committed by this category of
person, but it may also be the result of
certain social changes contributing to
the disappearance or decrease of factors conducive to the manifestation of
undesirable conduct
in juveniles.
- In
1998, there was an increase in offences within this age group. But a longer
period of time would be needed to draw more reliable
conclusions about whether
this is a trend or an accidental oscillation in one year, an exception to the
general trend.
- The
structure of criminal offences committed by juveniles can be one of the
indicators of the gravity of negative conduct by youth
up to the age of 18.
Though this kind of assessment
- requires
taking into account other circumstances as well, and especially the social
environment and the personality of the juvenile
offender, it is important to
examine whether the offences committed by persons up to 18 years of age can be
described as “innocent”,
“typically childish”, or
whether the nature of the offences points to a certain severity and gravity.
The research in
this area conducted so far has shown that juvenile offences, as
a rule, are limited to property-related offences, but the results
diverge in
terms of the type of property-related criminal acts.
- According
to available data, aggravated theft is most prominent in the structure of
juvenile offence. Observed over a four-year period,
in the territory of the
Public Security Centre of Banja Luka the average share of this offence was
somewhat above 68 per cent of
the total number of offences committed by
juveniles. The average proportional share of the criminal offence of theft is
considerably
lower (about 16 per cent), while the average share of robbery,
fraud, cover-up and other criminal acts in the total number of offences
committed is small.
- The
above data confirm that property-related offences occupy a significant place in
the structure of juvenile offence. On average,
more than 92 per cent of all
offences committed by the population younger than 18 are property-related
offences, and among them the
offence of aggravated theft and theft is prominent.
As the largest number of juveniles are convicted for property-related offences,
this may be linked to a decline in living standards. Offences against body and
life - homicide and serious bodily harm - according
to this data make up only
somewhat more than 1 per cent. Other offences against life and body committed
by juveniles make up 1.4
per cent, which means that on the whole this group of
offences has no major criminal importance among persons up to 18 years of age,
which is quite understandable if one takes into consideration their age.
- Regarding
other groups of offences committed by juveniles, the most frequent are offences
against the general security of people and
property, which on the average
account for slightly more than 1.6 per cent in relation to the total number of
juvenile offences in
the reference period.
- Drug
addiction is one of the most serious and most complex forms of alienation in the
modern world, and therefore it constitutes a
significant social problem in most
modern societies. The scope and severity of this social problem is not measured
only by the number
of persons who are addicted to drugs, but also by its
manifestations and morphological forms and harmful health, sociopathological,
sociocultural, economic and other consequences affecting individuals, society
and social groups - in the first place the family.
It is known that there are
many more drug addicts than the number that have been identified and treated.
Therefore, the number
of registered drug addicts is only an indication of the
scope of the problem in this field. The existing disagreements over the
level
of drug addiction do not call into question the existence of this phenomenon in
society. Knowledge of some social processes
and conditions that are relevant
to, conducive to and/or in correlation with drug addiction point to the fact
that this is a long-lasting
and complex social phenomenon that is not only a
matter of fashion or a phenomenon imported from other developed societies.
Therefore,
the societal attitude towards a phenomenon that, due to its causes,
prevalence, and especially due to its consequences, has the character
of a
social problem is of special importance.
- The
attitude of society towards this social problem calls for long-term planned
activities and actions of various types - in the first
place activities and
actions of health care, education and social welfare, by humanitarian agencies
and specialized voluntary organizations
and the local administration. It is of
importance for future activities in the prevention of drug abuse that this
problem is insufficiently
known and insufficiently and only occasionally
monitored, and longterm studies of the specific aspects of the phenomenon and
its
causes are lacking. It is therefore necessary to provide conditions for the
systematic monitoring and study of drug abuse. It is
not necessary to repeat
that this requires an interdisciplinary and team approach encompassing
sociologists, psychologists, social
workers and other professionals. Just as
timely detection of each case of drug abuse is a precondition for timely and
successful
protection and rehabilitation of the addict, the systematic
monitoring and study of drug abuse is a precondition for the planning
of proper
and successful activities of social institutions and others in preventing drug
abuse. The attempt to introduce compulsory
registration of drug addicts is only
one of the possibilities of systematic
monitoring.
List of annexes to the report
Laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina
− Constitution of
Bosnia and Herzegovina
− Law on citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina
− Law on immigration and asylum
− Law on refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and displaced persons in
BiH
Entity Laws (1996-2000)
Laws of the Federation of Bosnia
and Herzegovina
− Constitution
of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
− Amendments II-XXIV to the Constitution of BiH Federation
− Law on civil procedure
− Criminal Code
− Law on criminal procedure
− Law on citizenship in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
− Law on bases of social welfare, protection of civil war victims and
protection of families with children
− Law on labour
− Law on displaced persons/exiles and refugees/returnees in the Federation
of Bosnia and Herzegovina
− Law on obligations
− Law on marriage and family relations
− Law on health insurance
− Law on health care
− Law on restricted use of tobacco products
− Law on Ombudsmen of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
− Law on elementary education
− Law on secondary education
− Law on conditions and procedure for termination of pregnancy
− Law on protection of population from infectious diseases
Laws of Republika Srpska
− Constitution of Republika Srpska
− Law on civil procedure
− Criminal Code
− Law on criminal procedure
− Law on citizenship in the Republika Srpska
− Law on employment relations
− Law on labour
− Law on social care
− Law on health care
− Law on health insurance
− Law on registers
− Law on refugees and displaced persons
− Law on obligations
− Law on rights of war veterans, disabled war veterans and families of
fallen soldiers
− Law on Ombudsmen of the Republika Srpska
− Law on personal name
− Law on employment
− Law on elementary education
− Law on secondary education
-----
[*] The annexes and attachments referred to
in the document may be consulted in the files
of the Secretariat.
GE.04-43937 (E) 131204
[1] In 1997 and 1998, in
cooperation with USAID and the humanitarian agency Save the Children, the
Ministry of Education and the Banja
Luka-based Republican Pedagogical Institute
developed an alternative programme for pre-school children. In 1997, this
programme
was implemented in 122 groups with around 3,000 children, and in
1998 in 105 groups with around 2,620 children. The intention is
to ensure
self-sufficiency of the playgroups and to implement this alternative programme
within the context of the implementation
of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child.
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