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Summary: General overview of Bosnia and Herzegovina's national legal provisions on children's rights, including guidance on how to conduct further research.
National laws on children’s rights Status of the CRC in national law Constitution: Article II of the Constitution contains a number or rights provisions that apply regardless of age, but there are only a small number of provisions throughout the Constitution that specifically address the rights of children: A more extensive list of legislation that specifically addresses children's rights issues can be found on pages 174-185 of this report (www.ombudsmen.gov.ba/materijali/analysischild.pdf). Legal research Case Law Case law research Compliance with the CRC In depth analysis Current legal reform projects Please contact CRIN if you are aware of any current legal reform projects.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child is incorporated into the national legal system by Annex I of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which identifies the Convention as an international agreement to be applied in the country. The House of Human Rights, acting as part of the Constitutional Court, can consider the CRC but unlike the European Convention on Human Rights, the CRC does not take priority over domestic laws. It is not clear what effect the CRC has in domestic courts.
The Constitutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska are available in a selection of languages through the Legislation Online website (http://www.legislationline.org/documents/section/constitutions). The Parliamentary Assembly maintains a website in English (https://www.parlament.ba/default.aspx?langTag=en-US&pril=b) and publishes legislation in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. The Institution of the Human Rights Ombudsmen in Bosnia and Herzegovina has published a report analysing the harmonisation of domestic legislation with the CRC. (www.ombudsmen.gov.ba/materijali/analysischild.pdf). An overview of the legal system is published on the website of the Globalex initiative at New York University (http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/bosnia_herzegovina1.htm) and general information about the legal system can be found on the Library of Congress website (http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/nations/bosnia.php). The World Legal Information Institute also provides a selection of links to legal and governmental resources (http://www.worldlii.org/catalog/2734.html).
CRC Jurisprudence
Please contact CRIN if you are aware of any cases in national courts that reference the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Decisions of the Federal Courts can be found on the website of the particular court - the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (http://www.sudbih.gov.ba/?jezik=e) and the Constitutional Court (http://www.ustavnisud.ba/eng/odluke/).
In its Concluding Observations of 2012, the Committee on the Rights of the Child noted that the majority of the State's legislation had been harmonised with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but expressed concern that there was no comprehensive child rights legislation at the national level to give full and direct effect to the Convention. The Committee noted that because of the complex national political structure, “the absence of such legislation results in inconsistencies in the implementation of child rights across [the] territory, with children in similar situations being subject to variations in the fulfilment of their rights depending on the territory in which they reside”.
The issue of discrimination against Roma children was of particular concern to the Committee, most notably access to education and healthcare. The Committee was critical of the “two-schools-under-one-roof” and mono-ethnic schools policies, as well as the exclusion of Roma children from health insurance despite national legislation. The Committee called on the State to harmonise its anti-discrimination law across the country, to end policies that segregate and discriminate against Roma children and to implement legislation to ensures Roma persons have equal access to health insurance coverage.
Another area of concern was the practice of placing children in out-of-family care on the sole basis of economic hardship of the parents. In this respect,the principle of the best interests of the child was not given primacy when making decisions regarding the placement of children in alternative care, therefore, the Committee recommended that procedure codes and guidelines for compliance with the best interests principle be developed and disseminated to decision-making authorities and that more emphasis is placed on family reunification. It was also recommended that measures be taken to improve the living conditions in child care institutions, to establish a foster care system and to support young people leaving the system of alternative care.
With regards to violence against children, the Committee expressed concern at the absence of harmonised legislation on domestic violence across the State and identified this failing as “a significant obstacle [to] ensuring the prevention and punishment of all forms of violence against children”. The Committee urged the State to take concrete measures to ensure the harmonisation of relevant legislation, in all entities and territories. While noting that corporal punishment is outlawed in schools, the Committee recommended that it be explicitly prohibited by legislation in all settings, including the home.