Press statement | 02.12.2016

International Day of Persons with Disabilities 3 December

On the occasion of 03 December, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, representatives of the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman of Bosnia and Herzegovina will visit a social care institution, Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities "Budućnost" Derventa. The aim of the visit is to get more familiar with work and challenges faced by the "Budućnost" Institution, which is the only institution in the Republic of Srpska earmarked to education of blind and visually impaired students.

Regular work of the Ombudsman’s Department for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities in 2016 included a number of the activities on the promotion and awareness-raising on the rights of persons with disabilities.

This year the Ombudsman has conducted a survey on the implementation of the recommendations of the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman of Bosnia and Herzegovina published in its Special Report entitled: "Accessibility of the premises of legislative bodies in Bosnia and Herzegovina to persons with disabilities" for purposes of which survey they engaged representatives of associations of paraplegics who were included in field visits, together with representatives the Ombudsman of Bosnia and Herzegovina to check if there were any architectural barriers, and gave their suggestions and comments on the basis of their needs without any other considerations.

Ombudsmen have also taken the activities to establish the situation in the institutions accommodating the persons with intellectual and mental disabilities and impairment, which will the subject of a future special report. In addition to that, in order to enable the realization of the rights to timely and full information, Ombudsmen have issued a recommendation related to the adaptation and adjustment of informative programs to persons with hearing impairment.

UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities should be directly applied in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, in practice this was not realized, so we have the situation that some new laws or by-laws govern many issues in a different way than the one suggested by the The Convention. This happens because these issues fall within the jurisdiction of the entities and the cantons and, as such, they constitute a basis for discrimination. Ombudsmen indicate that there is still a problem of data collection relating to the rights of persons with disabilities. Work on individual complaints of the Ombudsman institution shows that it is crucial to include representatives of persons with disabilities in the process of the adoption of legislation governing the exercise of the rights of persons with disabilities. Also, the Ombudsman’s work on complaints revealed that a large number of persons with disabilities become aware of some of their rights only after they address the Ombudsman (e.g. the purchase of medicines for patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, exemption from customs duty on import of vehicles intended as orthopedic aids persons with disabilities etc.).

Useful Links

• Cooperation with NGO
• Office Days of the BiH Ombudsman
• Agreements of the Ombudsperson Institution of BiH with other ombudsman institutions
• Covid-19 and the human rights effect
• Freedom of Access to Information
• ​Marrakech Declaration, 12th October 2018
• Operational Strategy of the Institution of Human rights Ombudsman of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Period 2023 – 2028
• Medium-Term Plan 2024-2026
• Ombudsman Manual for handling discrimination cases
• Guidelines for filling in the complaints in the area of discrimination
• Application before European Court of Human Rights - Instruction
• The life of an application before the European Court of Human Rights
• News Archive

We are protecting rights of natural persons and legal entities in accordance with the Constitution of BiH and international human rights instruments...
Ombudsmen of BiH

Ombudsman's Activities

Ombudsmenka Nives Jukić na Gala koncertu povodom obilježavanja Dana Evrope 2024.

Ombudsmen dr. Nevenko Vranješ učesnik panel diskusije o garanciji lokalne autonomije u Federaciji Bosne i Hercegovine

Ombudsmenka Nives Jukić na konsultativnom sastanku OHCHR-a o UPR-u

Ombudsmenka dr Jasminka Džumhur na prijemu Ambasade Kraljevine Nizozemske u BiH

Ombudsmen dr Nevenko Vranješ učesnik Okruglog stola “Pravni problemi u vezi sa ugovorima o (sub)specijalizaciji u oblasti medicine”

Ombudsmenka dr. Jasminka Džumhur na predavanju za predstavnike porodica nestalih osoba i organizacija civilnog društva iz Ukrajine

Activities Archive