Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina has reported hate crime data to ODIHR. The three criminal codes applicable in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and the Brčko District contain identical or very similar hate crime provisions. These provisions include a definition of hate crime, penalty enhancements for specific offences and a mandatory general penalty enhancement for offences committed out of hatred. Hate crime data are provided by the Ministry of Interior but an institutional system for recording and collecting data has not been established. Victimization surveys have not been conducted.

SELECT YEAR

OFFICIAL DATA

Year	Hate crimes recorded by police	Prosecuted	Sentenced
2020	8	8	5
2019	21	13	9
2018	Not available	Not available	Not available
2017	Not available	Not available	Not available
2016	Not available	Not available	Not available
2015	24	12	3
2014	200	36	23
2013	350	77	88
2012	Not available	Not available	Not available
2011	Not available	Not available	Not available
2010	19	Not available	Not available
2009	15	Not available	Not available

About 2015 Data

The decrease in figures is due to a new method of reporting the recorded data. Official figures include incidents of hate speech.

Incidents reported by civil society, international organizations and the Holy See

Download incident data

Reports

Hate crime against Christians and members of other religions

The Holy See reported an incident of vandalism in a Catholic cemetery and one incident of graffiti on a church under construction. The authorities reported back that bias motivation was not established in either of the incidents.

The Interreligious Council in Bosnia-Herzegovina reported three incidents of vandalism targeting Orthodox churches, including one which involved graffiti; and one desecration of an Orthodox cemetery, involving graffiti on graves.

Anti-LGBTI hate crime

The Sarajevo Open Center reported five physical assaults, including one carried out by a group armed with a knife; four instances of threats, three of which involved intimidation lasting over extended periods of time; and one incident in which the office of an LGBT rights organization was vandalized with offensive graffiti.

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

SETA and the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina reported two physical assaults, including one carried out by a group and one in which nationalist symbols were carved onto the victim; and three incidents involving anti-Bosniak graffiti.

Anti-Muslim hate crime

SETA and the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina reported five incidents of threats that occurred near mosques at prayer time, two cases of damage to mosques and one incident targeting a cemetery.

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

In its "Concluding observations on the ninth to eleventh periodic reports of Bosnia and Herzegovina", the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) highlighted the importance of fully implementing the existing criminal provisions on hate crimes and expressed concern at the continuation of hate crimes against minority returnees.

The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina reported that it continued its activities with law enforcement, the judiciary and civil society organizations, organizing four training events for a total of 80 prosecutors and judges, and two training events for a total of 46 law enforcement officers. Nineteen local Coalitions against Hate, established with the assistance of the Mission, implemented approximately 100 activities in the fields of prevention and education, including painting over offensive graffiti. The Mission continued its co-operation with the Sarajevo Open Centre (SOC) in implementing the two-year project Fighting Hate Crime in BiH. This project included six training events for a total of 155 police officers on hate crimes and another for 24 judicial and prosecutorial trainees. The Mission also continued to support its online Super Citizens reporting tool and to publish reports in its Hate Monitor, a monthly infographic of the Mission’s hate crimes monitoring information. This tool presents the latest data on all known bias-motivated incidents and responses to these incidents by judicial agencies, local authorities and civil society throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.