Sarajevo Open Centre reported an incident in which three women were physically assaulted, with one of them suffering serious injury; a physical assault against a male LGBT activist; and 13 incidents of threats against gay people and LGBT activists. The Sarajevo Open Centre and the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina reported physical assaults against three LGBT activists at an LGBT-related discussion in a cinema, carried out by a group and resulting in the hospitalization of two of the victims.
The Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina reported one incident of graffiti on the offices of a local Islamic community centre.
The Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina reported two incidents of threats, one in which threats were directed at a group of women, seven incidents of graffiti, one incident of vandalism, seven incidents of damage to mosques, one incident of the desecration of a mosque, and ten incidents of the desecration of graves.
The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina reported 93 incidents targeting individuals from the Albanian, Bosniak, Serb and Croat communities. These included the murders of two elderly Croat returnees, who were severely beaten and later died of their injuries; the murder with an axe of an elderly Bosniak returnee; an arson attack against the house of a Croat family; an incident in which a Croat man’s home was damaged; a series of threats against a Bosniak woman; a threat against a police officer during a ceremony commemorating victims exhumed from a mass grave; a physical assault against a Bosniak returnee; and an incident of damage to property owned by an Albanian.
The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina reported a series of threats against a Roma man, during which he was spat at, an incident of graffiti on the entrance of a Roma rights organization, and an incident of damage to property and threats.
The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina reported an incident of anti-Semitic graffiti at the construction site of a synagogue.
The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina reported 33 incidents targeting Christian sites, such as churches and cemeteries, including an incident of damage to an Adventist church, an incident of threats against a Catholic priest and damage to his church, and two incidents of damage to Orthodox churches.
The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina reported that it continued its activities with law enforcement, the judiciary and civil society organizations, including organizing four training events for 52 prosecutors and judges, and the establishment of five local civil society coalitions that aim to work together to improve monitoring and prevention of hate crime. The Mission continued to support its online “Super Citizens” reporting tool and to publish reports in its Hate Monitor, a monthly visualization of the Mission’s hate crimes monitoring information, which 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.
The Mission also continued its co-operation with the project “Fighting Hate Crime in BiH”, funded by the Dutch OSCE Delegation. The Mission also reported that the Federal Ministry of Interior and the Police Academy adopted a hate crime training programme for the police, and that five municipalities adopted Community Cohesion Action Plans.
The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina reported 21 incidents that targeted Islamic sites, including mosques and cemeteries.
The UN Human Rights Council, in its Universal Periodic Review (UPR), recommended that local authorities collect and evaluate hate crime data, and publicly and unequivocally condemn any hate crime against LGBT groups and bring those responsible to justice.
The Holy See reported an incident in which two victims were severely beaten and later died. The Holy See also reported one incident of threats, three arson attacks on the homes of returnees and on a church, three incidents of the vandalism of Catholic churches, and three incidents of the desecration of graves.
ODIHR observes that Bosnia and Hercegovina has not reported hate crime data disaggregated by bias motivation to ODIHR.