2008 Human Rights Report: Bosnia and Herzegovina

[CroRadio.net]

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/eur/119071.htm

2008 Human Rights Report: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
February 25, 2009


Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) consists of two entities within the
state, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Federation) and
the Republika Srpska (RS), and Brcko District, with a total population
of approximately four million. The Federation has a Bosniak (Muslim)
and Croat (Catholic) majority, while the RS has a Bosnian Serb
(Orthodox) majority. As stipulated in the 1995 peace agreement (the
Dayton Accords), a state-level constitution provides for a democratic
republic with a bicameral parliamentary assembly but assigns many
governmental functions to the two entities. The Dayton Accords also
provide for the Office of the High Representative (OHR) with the
authority to impose legislation and remove officials. The tripartite
presidency consists of Bosnian Croat Zeljko Komsic, Bosnian Serb
Nebojsa Radmanovic, and Bosniak Haris Silajdzic. In 2006, the country
held general elections that international observers deemed free and
fair. Municipal elections held during the year were similarly
evaluated by independent local observers. Civilian authorities
generally maintained effective control of the security forces.

The government's human rights record remained poor. Although there
were improvements in some areas, serious problems remained. There were
reports of continued deaths from landmines, police abuses, poor and
overcrowded prison conditions, increased harassment and intimidation
of journalists and members of civil society, discrimination and
violence against women and ethnic and religious minorities,
discrimination against persons with disabilities and sexual
minorities, obstruction of refugee return, trafficking in persons, and
limits on employment rights. At year's end, Ratko Mladic, the war
crimes suspect most wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), remained at large.

RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
From:

a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life

There were no reports that the government or its agents committed
arbitrary or unlawful killings.

Domestic courts and the ICTY continued to adjudicate cases arising
from killings during the 1992-95 conflict.

Although the government supports an array of demining programs,
outside observers questioned whether corruption undermined the
integrity and safety of demining projects in the country. During the
year there were 21 landmine accidents that killed 19 persons and
injured 20.

b. Disappearance

There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.

An estimated 11,989 persons remained missing from the 1992-95 war. The
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported that since
1995 it had received 22,411 requests from family members to trace
relatives still missing from the war. By year's end a total of 10,422
persons had been accounted for, including 460 located alive. Political
leaders often intentionally misrepresented actual numbers related to
the number of missing or deceased persons in an effort to buttress
claims of victimization of their respective ethnic groups. Such
misrepresentation contributed to the country's unstable political
environment.

RS leaders, particularly Prime Minister Dodik, hindered the state-
level Missing Persons Institute's (MPI) work by attempting to
reestablish an RS body with similar responsibilities. Throughout 2007,
the staffs of both entity commissions were fully integrated into MPI,
and joint exhumation teams took over functions previously split
between the entities. MPI is responsible for continuing the search for
missing persons in partnership with the International Commission on
Missing Persons (ICMP). The institute's goal was to establish a
single, central list of all missing persons from the 1992-95 war.
However, when the RS formed its Operational Team for the Search for
Missing Persons, some ethnic Serb staff from MPI left that institution
to work on the RS team. Both international and state-level officials
characterized the creation of the RS team as an attempt to disrupt
MPI's work by creating a parallel institution at the entity level.
Although RS officials denied the assertion, RS operational teams
refused MPI personnel access to archives that were transferred to
MPI's ownership in accordance with the 2004 Law on Missing Persons.
The RS prosecutors did not cooperate in MPI's exhumation and
identification process. Since May there were no exhumations or
identifications carried out by RS prosecutors.

At year's end excavations coordinated by MPI had resulted in the
recovery of 506 bodies and 1,524 sets of partial remains. The majority
of mortal remains were recovered from 13 mass graves (seven of them
related to the 1995 Srebrenica genocide) in the Podrinje area.

From 2000 through the end the year, the ICMP generated a total of
24,571 DNA matches relevant to 15,066 missing persons, of which 11,935
relate to the country, and collected over 86,759 blood samples from
persons related to 28,694 missing individuals, of which 68,763 samples
related to 23,168 persons were relevant to the country.

During the year the BiH State Prosecutor's Office and its War Crimes
Department continued to investigate the events surrounding the
Srebrenica genocide and the fate of individuals missing from those
events.

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment

The law prohibits such practices; however, there were allegations that
police physically mistreated individuals.

On July 2, the country's Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HCHR)
paid a visit to Zenica prison, noting some continuing issues
unresolved since the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention
of Torture (CPT) report on its March 2007 visit to the country's
prison and detention facilities. The CPT reported several allegations
of physical mistreatment by police, especially during questioning. The
CPT recommended that police should immediately remove baseball bats,
replica pistols, and metal piping with wrist straps from premises
where police may hold or question individuals.

Various state and entity level ministries and state, entity, and
cantonal law enforcement agencies responded to preliminary
observations of the CPT by the required deadline, laying out a series
of measures they had undertaken to address reported concerns. The
Federation minister of interior and the police director informed the
ministries and police commissioners of each canton of the CPT
findings, including a reminder that mistreatment of persons deprived
of liberty is illegal and unprofessional and that it will be punished.
The cantonal ministries each responded to the Federation government
with reports on actions taken to investigate and process cases of
mistreatment. In RS, Ministry of Interior authorities responsible for
oversight of individual organizational units were ordered to pay
special attention to monitoring legality of treatment of persons
deprived of liberty, and to undertake sanctions as regulated by the
law in order to combat torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.

On July 6, Sanel Jusic reported to Herzegovina-Neretva Canton police
in Mostar that four officers assaulted him without cause. According to
Jusic, while walking with two foreign citizens, a police car stopped
in front of him and four officers got out and assaulted him without
requesting identification. The spokesman for the canton police, Lejla
Trivun, confirmed that Jusic reported the incident and stated that
police forwarded the case to the Internal Control Unit.

Prison and Detention Center Conditions

Prison standards for hygiene and access to medical care met prisoners'
basic needs, but overcrowding and antiquated facilities remained
serious problems. Overcrowding, inadequate nutrition, and poor hygiene
were chronic problems in police detention facilities, some of which
were unsuitable for use. There were no proper facilities for treating
mentally ill or special needs prisoners.

There were some reports of allegedly ethnically motivated violence
among inmates, particularly the formation of prison gangs based on
ethnicity or region of origin. Prison officials are able, to a degree,
to isolate those who appear to be the source of threats to others, or
those whom others targeted.

There were no specific reports of corruption among prison officials,
but authorities presumed such corruption. In some cases, inadequate
infrastructure, irregular staffing patterns and placement of prisoners
in centers near their support networks facilitated prison escapes.
Investigators alleged that corruption was a factor in the successful
May 2007 escape of Radovan Stankovic from Foca Prison. At year's end
Stankovic remained at large.

The government responded to the CPT request for information in the
2006 death of one prisoner who died in custody, reportedly of a drug
overdose. The autopsy, which was performed in Zagreb, confirmed that
the prisoner died of a drug overdose. During its March 2007 visit, the
CPT found detention cells at the Foca police station to be "appalling"
and requested the cells be taken out of service immediately. The cells
were subsequently taken out of service, and renovation was in progress
at year's end. The CPT also found a proposed cell area in Visegrad
unsuitable and said it should not be brought into use. The area in
question was not in use at year's end, at which time authorities were
seeking funding for renovation.

Adult and juvenile female inmates were held together in separate wings
of facilities for adult males. Facilities held male inmates aged 16 to
18 with adult male inmates, with male inmates under the age of 16 held
separately. Following its March 2007 visit, the CPT delegation noted
that the practice of placing juveniles with older inmates in the
admission ward of Foca Prison was contrary to the principle of
separation of juveniles and adults and "totally unsafe." The
correction facility for RS juveniles aged 16 to 18 in the Banja Luka
Prison had a 35-bed capacity, well below the space needed. Zenica
prison held one 17-year-old in its general prison population. It also
held 33 people in a pretrial detention building separated from the
rest of the prison. One woman was among the 33 persons there, though
each prisoner was held in a separate cell.

On May 28, the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) established that
the country had violated the European Convention on Human Rights with
respect to persons who were held in Zenica correctional facility. The
court ordered the country to pay the plaintiffs 18,500 euros
(approximately $26,000) in compensation and recommended that the state
provide higher levels of protection in prisons and set up mechanisms
for inspections of prisons.

The government permitted visits by independent human rights observers
and gave international community representatives widespread and
unhindered access to detention facilities and prisoners. The BiH HCHR
visited the Zenica Prison on July 2 to follow-up locally on the March
2007 CPT visit. The HCHR report cited problems with understaffed and
overworked staff, serious overcrowding, and aged facilities as the
source of serious human rights concerns. Describing penitentiary life,
the HCHR noted that fights among prisoners were "everyday features"
that often lead to "serious injuries." They noted a number of recent
attacks on prison staff by inmates. The HCHR also noted the presence
of illegal drugs among the prisoner population, and expressed concern
about a lack of effective control.

The ICRC continued to have access to detention facilities under the
jurisdiction of the ministries of justice at both the state and entity
levels; it mainly visited persons under investigation or sentenced for
war crime offenses.

d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention

The law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, and the government
generally observed these prohibitions.

Role of the Police and Security Apparatus

The law gives both entity- and state-level governments responsibility
for law enforcement, but extends significant overlapping competencies
to each entity and to the Brcko District, each of which has its own
police force. The European Union Force continued to implement the
military aspects of the Dayton Accords and provide a secure
environment for implementation of the nonmilitary aspects of the
settlement. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in
Sarajevo is responsible for overseeing defense reform,
counterterrorism efforts, and cooperation with the ICTY. The European
Union Police Mission monitored, mentored, inspected, and worked to
raise the professional standards of the local police.

The country made some progress on state-level police reform.
Authorities postponed local-level police reform until after the
completion of constitutional reform. In accordance with the November
2007 Sarajevo Action Plan, the state parliament adopted two police
reform laws in April mandating the creation of four new state-level
police agencies and three state-level police oversight bodies. By
year's end the seven bodies had not yet been fully formed or staffed.
Entities did not meet the target standards of ethnic representation on
police forces that their respective constitutions mandated.

The Police Standards Units (PSU) functioned as internal affairs
investigative units in each entity's Ministry of the Interior and in
the Brcko District. The presence of these units led to the creation of
standardized procedures for processing complaints of police misconduct
and for disciplining police. There were continued reports of
corruption within the entity and state-level security services. The
PSUs discovered crimes including bribery, inflicting serious injury,
violating public law and order under the influence, assisting the
escape of a prisoner during transport, forgery, and extortion.
Authorities dismissed one individual for war crimes charges.

During the first nine months of the year, the RS PSUs investigated 680
conduct-related complaints and determined that 86 were well founded.
The unit forwarded recommendations for disciplinary action to
prosecutors in 19 cases that they considered major violations. In
addition, authorities filed nine felony reports and three misdemeanor
reports against 13 RS Interior Ministry employees for offenses
including narcotics trafficking, forgery, theft, domestic violence,
assault, extortion, and traffic violations, indicating a significant
decrease from the previous year. During the year Federation PSUs
investigated 375 cases and forwarded 43 complaints to prosecutors for
disciplinary action. During the year the Brcko District PSU
investigated 52 cases and concluded that five complaints were well
founded. The PSU forwarded two cases deemed to be major violations of
duty to prosecutors for disciplinary action.

Arrest and Detention

Police generally arrested persons openly with warrants based on
sufficient evidence. Authorities promptly informed detainees of the
charges against them, and there was a functioning bail system. The law
requires police to bring persons suspected of committing a crime
before a prosecutor within 24 hours of detention. The law also
authorizes police to detain individuals for up to six hours at the
scene of a crime for investigative purposes; this period is included
in the 24-hour detention period allowed prior to being charged. The
prosecutor has an additional 24 hours either to determine whether
police should release the person or to bring the person before a judge
who decides whether they should remain in pretrial custody. The law
generally limits pretrial detention to one year. The law allows
detainees to request a lawyer of their own choosing, requires
authorities to inform detainees of the charges against them after an
indictment, and provides the right to a speedy trial. In practice,
authorities generally observed these requirements. There were no cases
of arbitrary arrest or detention reported during the year.

e. Denial of Fair Public Trial

The state constitution does not explicitly provide for an independent
judiciary, but the laws of both entities do. The State Court is the
highest court in the country for certain criminal cases, including war
crimes, organized crime, terrorism, economic crime, and corruption.
The country also has a State Constitutional Court and State
Prosecutor's Office. Each entity has its own supreme court and chief
prosecutors' offices. The state-level court system does not exercise
judicial supremacy over the individual entity-level court systems.
Political parties sometimes influenced the judiciary in politically
sensitive cases. Judicial reforms reduced the level of intimidation by
organized crime figures and political leaders, but intimidation
remained.

In March, RS Prime Minister Dodik threatened to file charges against
judges of the Trebinje Municipal Court for "attempted theft." The
judges had ruled in favor of a family who sought compensation for
their metal processing plant, which Trebinje Municipality confiscated
in 1993 on the orders of the RS Ministry of Trade. Dodik's threat
prompted OHR to issue a press release warning against intimidation of
the judiciary. Branko Peric, then president of the High Judiciary and
Prosecutorial Council, characterized Dodik's action as a direct threat
to judicial independence.

On September 11, the RS government formally instructed its ministries
and agencies not to cooperate with state-level law enforcement and
judicial institutions conducting an investigation into alleged
corruption involving RS government building contracts. The OHR
publicly criticized the RS government's action as "explicit political
interference with the independence of the judiciary and in operational
policing." The RS government asserted that the State did not have
jurisdiction in the matter, and insisted that certain conditions be
met before it would comply with the State Prosecutor's Office and
State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA).

On October 2, Dodik publicly threatened violence should state-level
law enforcement officials seek to obtain documents from RS government
buildings in the context of the investigation. He accused "part of
OHR" of "conducting a personal war against the RS" and "Muslims of
Sarajevo" of "abusing their power" with regard to the investigation.
Dodik also said, "I want to send them a message that next time they
(state-level law enforcement officials) will not be allowed to enter
such institutions without resistance by the RS police." On November
13, the State Court issued an order requested by the State Prosecutor
allowing SIPA to seize needed documents from RS government buildings.

On November 26, the RS government submitted some of the requested
documents to the State Court. The following day, it filed an appeal of
the State Court's temporary seizure order with the State Court on the
grounds that the court did not have jurisdiction in the matter, but
its appeal was later rejected.

Also on November 27, the RS government filed a criminal complaint with
the State Prosecutor's Office against Acting Chief Prosecutor Milorad
Barasin, the OHR principal deputy high representative, and seven other
individuals in connection with the state prosecutor's investigation of
possible corruption in the RS. The move was condemned by OHR, which
noted that "Milorad Dodik is clearly making use of Republika Srpska
institutions and personnel to try to intimidate the international
community." The State Prosecutor's Office investigation of RS
corruption remained underway at year's end.

The state-level High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) acts
independently and regulates many of the most important affairs of the
judiciary with clear, transparent criteria for judicial and
prosecutorial appointments and detailed disciplinary liability for
judges and prosecutors. In November, the Federation government
appointed a judge who was not vetted by the HJPC to the Federation's
Constitutional Court. The HJPC and the Office of the High
Representative voiced strong concern that this appointment was not in
compliance with the law on the HJPC. A resolution of this issue was
still pending at year's end.

On December 12, Dodik criticized the work of Muslim judges in the
country, saying "...it is unacceptable for the RS that Muslim judges
try us and throw out complaints that are legally founded. And we think
that it is only because they are Muslims, Bosniaks and that they have
a negative orientation towards the RS, and we see the conspiracy that
has been created." The OHR, the international community, and others
widely condemned this statement.

Local officials and police generally cooperated in enforcing court
decisions, but problems persisted as a result of inefficiency. Despite
efforts to streamline court procedures, there was a backlog of nearly
two million unresolved cases, with over one-half utility bill cases,
and only approximately one-tenth for criminal matters.

Authorities generally respected and implemented Constitutional Court
decisions, although often with delays.

Trial Procedures

Under Federation and RS laws, defendants enjoy a presumption of
innocence, trials are public, and the defendant has the right to
counsel at public expense, if charged with a crime that is punishable
by long-term imprisonment. However, courts did not always appoint
defense attorneys for indigent defendants in cases where the maximum
prison sentence was less than five years due to insufficient court
budgets and high attorney fees. The law provides that defendants have
the right to confront or question witnesses, to present witnesses and
evidence on their own behalf, to access government-held evidence
relevant to their cases, and the right to appeal. The government
observed these rights in practice.

The State Court made significant progress adjudicating organized crime
and war crimes cases and expanded the witness protection program.
Since its inception, the SIPA Witness Protection Department provided
support to more than 350 individuals. During the year the department
provided support to 120 individuals.

On April 25, the RS Supreme Court affirmed the November 2007 Bijelina
District Court convictions of two individuals in the February 2007
murder of RS HCHR cofounder Dusko Kondor. The killer received a 20-
year prison sentence, while his accomplice received a four-year
sentence.

The State Court War Crimes Chamber and entity courts continued
conducting war crimes trials during the year. Of the six cases
transferred from ICTY to Bosnia and Herzegovina between 2005 and 2006,
all but the case against Milorad Trbic had completed first instance
trials, and there were final verdicts in two cases. The State
Prosecutor's Office opened 49 new war crimes investigations involving
106 suspects and confirmed 22 new indictments involving 29 accused war
criminals. This was the first year the State Prosecutor's Office used
plea agreements in some cases. During the year the office also
unveiled new case selection criteria based on a demographic analysis
of all crimes committed nationwide. This tool allows the State
Prosecutor's Office to focus on the most egregious war crimes. In
December the Council of Ministers adopted a National War Crimes
Strategy for war crimes prosecution. The strategy foresees the
prosecution of the most serious war crimes by 2016 and all other war
crimes by 2024.

The State Prosecutor's Office continued its investigations against RS
police officers and other individuals whose names were included in the
list of individuals suspected of participating in genocide committed
in and around Srebrenica. Authorities stripped these individuals of
their travel documents to prevent flight. At year's end one of the 35
police officers named by the commission had been indicted, and
investigations against two others were discontinued.

On September 2, the state-level appellate court returned the case of
Ranko Vukovic to the first instance panel of the State Court. That
panel found Vukovic guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced
him to 12 years in prison February 4. Vukovic remains free while the
panel hears his case again, though authorities seized his passport.

On February 22, the court sentenced Idhan Sipic, who pled guilty to
charges of war crimes for killing a civilian while he was serving in
the wartime Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to eight
years in prison. This was the first war crimes case in which a plea
agreement was reached between the State Prosecutor's Office and a
defendant.

On February 26, the trial of Ratko Bundalo in a 1992 Kalinovik war
crimes case began and was ongoing at year's end. SIPA arrested Bundalo
in August 2007 with several others as part of a larger investigation.

On February 28, a panel of the State Court convicted Mitar Rasevic and
Savo Todovic on charges of crimes against humanity. Rasevic and
Todovic were in charge of the Foca prison camp. The court sentenced
Rasevic to eight years and six months in prison and Tadovic to twelve
years and six months in prison.

On February 28, a first instance panel of the State Court convicted
Veiz Bjelic of war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war and
sentenced him to six years in prison. Bjelic, a former guard at Stala
prison, pled guilty after reaching a plea agreement with the State
Prosecutor's Office. The court accused him of raping a civilian and of
allowing members of the Vlasenica Territorial Defense to enter the
prison premises and physically and emotionally abuse Serb prisoners,
resulting in the death of a prisoner.

On October 23, the appellate panel sentenced Marko Samardzija to seven
years' imprisonment in the retrial of his 2006 conviction for crimes
against humanity, including the killing of over 144 Bosniak men and
boys from the villages of Brkic and Balagic Brdo in Kljuc Municipality
in 1992.

On September 8, the RS Ministry of Justice allowed the head of Foca
prison, Aleksandar Cicmil, whom the same ministry suspended after the
May 2007 escape of convicted war criminal Radovan Stankovic, to return
to work in another capacity. On September 13, the RS Ministry of
Justice ordered the suspension of the seven prison guards who were on
duty at the time of Stankovic's escape following confirmation of their
indictment by a state-level court. Authorities had earlier reinstated
the guards to their positions after a July 9 decision by the Trebinje
District Court. The OHR, in a press release one year after the escape,
characterized the lack of disciplinary action against responsible
officials as "an outrage."

The 2006 State Prosecutor's Office investigation into the activities
of the former commander of the army's Fifth Corps, General Atif
Dudakovic, and other unknown persons shown in a video killing an
unknown number of individuals from the Bosnian Serb Army during the
war, was ongoing at year's end.

One ICTY indictee wanted for crimes committed in the country, Ratko
Mladic, remained at large. On July 18, Serbian police arrested Radovan
Karadzic, a fugitive for 13 years, and transferred him to The Hague.
Karadzic, along with Mladic, was one of the most wanted ICTY
indictees.

Despite local and international efforts to prosecute war crimes, many
of the lower-level perpetrators of killings and other abuses remained
unpunished. These included those responsible for the approximately
8,000 persons killed in the genocide that took place after the fall of
Srebrenica and those responsible for approximately 13,000 to 15,000
other persons who were missing and presumed killed.

In July, the State Court found seven of 11 defendants guilty of
genocide in the killing of more than 1,000 Bosniak men and boys at the
Kravice Farming Warehouse Cooperative. This was the first time that a
domestic court had reached a genocide verdict.

Political Prisoners and Detainees

There were no reports of political prisoners or detainees.

Civil Judicial Procedures and Remedies

The law provides for an independent and impartial judiciary in civil
matters, and citizens could file civil suits seeking remedies for
human rights violations. On December 4, the parliament completed the
process of naming the members of the state-level Office of the
Ombudsman. Jasminka Dzumhur (Bosniak), Ivo Bradvica (Croat), and
Ljubomir Sandic (Serb), were appointed as ombudsmen with six-year
mandates. With the completion of the appointment process, entity
ombudsman institutions are required to entirely cease to exist within
a month. However, at year's end, the State Ombudsman institution had
still not been fully constituted, as the National Assembly of
Republika Srpska had not yet adopted the Law on Cessation of Existence
of the RS Ombudsman Institution and Transfer of Competencies to State
Ombudsman. When the unified State Ombudsman is fully empowered
individuals will be able to seek assistance from a single, national
human rights ombudsman to hear and provide recommendations on cases of
human rights violations. These recommendations, however, will not be
binding.

Property Restitution

The country's four traditional religious communities had extensive
claims for restitution of property that the communist government of
the former Yugoslavia nationalized after World War II. The State Law
on Religious Freedom provides religious communities the right to
restitution of expropriated property "in accordance with the law." In
the absence of state legislation specifically governing restitution,
return of former religious properties continued on an ad hoc basis at
the discretion of municipal officials; these officials usually only
completed such restitution in favor of the majority group in that
particular state.

On August 1, the Mostar city council temporarily returned six
buildings to the Serb Orthodox Church that the government confiscated
after World War II.

On August 14, workers began removing the church bells from an Orthodox
church in Divic near Zvornik and transferred them to a newly-
constructed church in Mladjevac. Serb Orthodox parishioners built the
Divic church on the location of a mosque that was destroyed in 1992.
The Islamic community and Serb Orthodox Church agreed to the transfer
of the church.

Many officials used property restitution cases as a tool of political
patronage, rendering religious leaders dependent on politicians to
regain property taken from religious communities. Other unresolved
restitution claims were politically and legally complicated. For
example, the Serbian Orthodox Church continued to seek the return of
the building that housed the University of Sarajevo's Faculty of
Economic Sciences. The Jewish and Muslim communities also asserted
historic claims to many commercial and residential properties in
Sarajevo. The Catholic community maintained a large number of similar
claims in Banja Luka. Interested parties complained of additional and
at times politically motivated parliamentary delays in legal reforms
to property restitution.

Roma displaced during the war had difficulty repossessing their
property as a result of discrimination and because they lacked
documents proving ownership or had never registered their property
with local authorities. The lack of documentation also prevented them
from applying for reconstruction assistance.

f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
Correspondence

The law prohibits such actions, and the government generally respected
these prohibitions in practice. However, some RS-based journalists
complained of telephone tapping and increased government surveillance.

Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:

a. Freedom of Speech and Press

The law provides for freedom of speech and of the press; however, the
government did not always respect press freedom in practice. Laws
delegated safeguarding freedom of the press to the cantons in the
Federation and to the entity-level authorities in the RS. Defamation
laws exist at the entity level, and freedom of information legislation
exists at both the entity and state levels.

There are provisions against hate speech in the Federation criminal
code, but not in the RS criminal code. The broadcasting code of
practice also regulates hate speech by broadcasters. The
Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA), charged with implementing the
code, did not register any cases of hate speech during the year.
However, independent analysts noted that hate speech is reemerging and
many media outlets use language, often nationalistic, considered
provocative or incendiary on matters related to ethnicity, religion,
sexual orientation, and political affiliation. The Press Council
received 63 complaints concerning print media, of which 13 complaints
were rejected and 10 were accepted. In some cases the Press Council
instructed media outlets to publish a refutation or a retraction;
mediation or self-regulation resolved 17 cases. Most of the accepted
complaints referred to the absence of the right to denial.

Government respect for freedom of speech and the press declined during
the year; some prominent individuals who criticized the government
were the target of government reprisals.

Political pressures on state-level media institutions continued. Both
Bosnia-Herzegovina Radio Television (BHRT) and the CRA were exposed to
frequent political attacks, particularly by RS officials, often
alleging a lack of impartiality. In the case of the BHRT, the attacks
appeared aimed at undermining the state-level public broadcasters and
building support for devolving media competencies from the state to
the entity level. Other public broadcasters remained vulnerable to
political influence as well. Two public broadcasters, Federation
Television (FTV) and Radio Television of Republika Srpska (RTRS),
remained the largest television broadcasters in the country. RTRS
reported predominantly pro-RS ruling party views.

During the year the Council of Ministers continued to block the
independent selection process of a general manager for the CRA for
over a year and attempted to influence the selection of a candidate.
The selection had not been made by year's end. Press freedom advocates
also noted that pressures on the CRA included political challenges to
the agency's scope of authority, as well as its financial
independence.

Many independent, privately owned newspapers were available and
expressed a wide variety of views. Several printing houses operated in
the country. Dnevni Avaz, whose editorial policy strongly reflected
Bosniak interests, remained the largest circulation daily, followed by
Banja Luka based daily Nezavisne Novine, a paper reflecting the views
of the RS ruling Alliance of Social Democrats party. A number of
independent print media outlets continued to encounter financial
problems that endangered their operation. The few remaining
independent media outlets in the RS continued to report government
interference with their operations.

A local commercial network of five stations operated in both entities
(Mreza Plus), as did the private television networks OBN and PinkBH.
Dozens of small independent television stations broadcast throughout
the country. Radio continued to provide a forum for diverse points of
view. In many cases, news programs of independent broadcasters
reflected opposition perspectives.

The vast majority of RS media outlets showed a distinct pro-RS
government bias. Federation media outlets also exhibited political
bias along ethnic lines, with some clearly taking positions in support
of specific political parties.

The number of threats against journalists dramatically increased.
During the year the Free Media Help Line (a part of the Bosnian
Journalists Association) registered 54 cases involving violations of
journalists' rights and freedoms and pressure from government and law
enforcement officials. There were 17 cases of pressure on and threats
to journalists, 13 physical assaults on journalists, and one case of
denied access to information.

In some instances, officials subjected media outlets to overt
pressure, such as threatening them with loss of advertising or placing
limits on their access to official information. Politicians and
government officials also pressured the media by accusing them of
opposing the interests of a given ethnic group or betraying the
interests of their own ethnic group. Some RS-based journalists
complained of telephone tapping, increased government surveillance,
actual or threatened lawsuits, repeated visits from tax authorities
and revocation of credit or loans.

On February 26, an RS police officer physically attacked OBN
television cameraman Ninoslav Danojlic while intervening during
violent protests in Banja Luka following the proclamation of the
Kosovo independence. The RS Association of Young Journalists
immediately criticized the attack. RS Minister of Interior Stanislav
Cadjo and RS Police Director Uros Pena met with the representatives of
the RS Association of Young Journalists and publicly apologized for
the incident. The police officer involved in the incident also
apologized to the cameraman, who accepted his apology. No other
disciplinary action was taken.

From December 2007 through August of this year, RS Prime Minister
Dodik filed 16 lawsuits against FTV as a private citizen, most of
which are against the editor-in-chief of FTV's political program "60
Minutes," Bakir Hadziomerovic, and FTV's Banja Luka correspondent,
Slobodan Vaskovic because of Vaskovic's reports on "60 Minutes"
accusing Dodik of crime and corruption. On July 14, one of the
lawsuits was rejected by the Sarajevo Municipal Court on the grounds
that Dodik was a high-ranking public official who should tolerate a
higher level of public criticism than private citizens.

On March 5, the CRA rejected Dodik's complaint against FTV and "60
Minutes" alleging unprofessional and biased reporting.

On April 24, Dodik called for the initiation of a bankruptcy and
liquidation procedure against BHRT, because, according to Dodik, State
spending on the station did not produce any results. The ombudsmen for
media, journalist's associations, the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the OHR, and other media freedom
advocates criticized this pressure exerted against the independent
media outlet. The BHRT continued to be vulnerable to political
pressures, largely as a result of the failure to establish a public
corporation for managing it as called for in the law that established
the BHRT.

In October, a state-level court overturned the September 15 decision
by the steering board for BHRT to remove Director-General Mehmed
Agovic. The court issued a temporary decision advising that he be
returned to work. In the meantime, the steering board appointed an
acting general manager. Media freedom advocates expressed concern,
claiming that the steering board decision was politically motivated,
and noted procedural controversies. The country's ombudsman for human
rights stated that the board violated Agovic's human rights and
appealed to the BiH Ministry of Transportation and Communication to
assess the situation at BHRT. On December 3, the court accepted the
appeal of the steering board, returning the case to the starting
point, at which point the steering board appointed a new general
manager. However, the court issued a subsequent temporary decision
December 26 overriding the appointment until the first instance court
reached a decision on the legality of the replacement. The case
remained unresolved at year's end.

On April 18, Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina (SBiH) delegate in the
state parliament Sadik Bahtic physically attacked an FTV crew,
preventing them from attending an SBiH press conference in Bihac.
Although the television footage showed the incident, Bahtic denied
there had been a physical attack, asserting that party officials had
not allowed the FTV reporters to attend the conference because of
their "ill-will directed towards that region and its development." The
Public Broadcasting Service Syndicate and the other journalists
present when the incident occurred, as well as the country's HCHR,
Centers for Civic Initiatives and 'Front' NGOs, and the Association of
Journalists, criticized the attack. SBiH stated Bahtic did not have
the right to prevent any journalist from attending the conference and
subsequently excluded Bahtic from the presidency body of SBiH,
although he remained a party member and delegate in the state
parliament.

On June 21, police attacked Vecernji List journalist Frano Matic and
attempted to confiscate his camera while he took pictures of riots and
the intervention of the special police forces after the Croatia-Turkey
soccer match. The police slightly injured the journalist. The
Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina Journalists, the Association of
Croat Journalists in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the ombudsman for
media criticized the attack.

On August 24, RTRS journalist Danijela Dodos from Prijedor received an
anonymous death threat by telephone. The caller told her to stop her
reports and investigations about the sale of property of the Prijedor-
based paper factory "Celpak." Dodos reported the threat to Prijedor
police, who provided her protection and opened an investigation, which
was ongoing at year's end.

On November 18, the head of the Islamic community of BiH, Reis Mustafa
Ceric, publicly accused the editor-in-chief of independent daily
Oslobodjenje, Vildana Selimbegovic, of "Islamophobia" and anti-Islamic
behavior. Ceric further stated that media criticisms and "efforts to
behead" the leadership of the Islamic community "are nothing but a
continuation of a genocidal policy, the aim of which is to wipe BiH
Muslims off the face of the earth." The accusations came as part of
the reaction by Ceric to an Oslobodjenje interview and op-ed that
touched on projects undertaken by the Rijaset of the Islamic community
of BiH, which criticized Ceric by name. The Islamic community issued a
press release highly critical of Oslobodjenje, alleging anti-Islamic
bias and psychological instability of the editor. The press release
provoked very strong reactions from the Association of Bosnia and
Herzegovina Journalists and was widely seen as an attempt by Ceric to
exert pressure against any members of the media critical of his
administration.

On December 4, two hand grenades were thrown at the Hayat television
station building in Sarajevo. The BiH Association of Electronic Media
expressed concern regarding the attack on a media outlet. The attack
was condemned by the Sarajevo Canton Government, BiH Communications
Regulatory Agency, as well as many BiH politicians. Results of the
Sarajevo Canton Ministry of the Interior investigation were pending at
year's end.

Internet Freedom

There were no government restrictions on access to the Internet or
reports that the government monitored e-mail or Internet chat rooms.
Individuals and groups could engage in the peaceful expression of
views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The International
Telecommunications Union estimates that 27 percent of the population
used the Internet.

Academic Freedom and Cultural Events

There were no government restrictions on academic freedom or cultural
events; however, ethnic favoritism and politicization of faculty
appointments constrained academic freedom. In Sarajevo, Serbs and
Croats complained that Bosniaks received preferential treatment in
appointments and promotions at the University of Sarajevo. The
University of Banja Luka continued to limit faculty appointments
almost exclusively to Serbs. The University of Mostar remained divided
into two separate universities, reflecting the continued ethnic divide
in the city. Parochial interests influence the remaining five
universities in Bosniak-majority areas.

b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

Freedom of Assembly

The law provides for freedom of assembly, and the government generally
respected this right in practice.

Freedom of Association

The law provides for freedom of association, and the government, with
certain exceptions, generally respected this right in practice. A wide
range of social, cultural, and political organizations functioned
without interference.

The law allows NGOs to register freely at the Ministry of Civil
Affairs and Communications and therefore to operate anywhere in the
country; however, some NGOs and NGO associations experienced
difficulties registering, including long delays and inconsistent
application of the law. Some NGOs, frustrated by bureaucratic delays
at the state level, chose instead to register their organizations at
the entity level in one or both entities. In April the Council of
Ministers signed a formal agreement on cooperation with NGOs that
defined joint principles and commitments of the Council of Ministers
and the nongovernmental sector. The agreement outlined the
independence of the nongovernmental sector, its financing,
responsibilities, and means for mutual consultation. The agreement
also foresaw the creation of a Council for Civil Society to oversee
implementation of the agreement, promote consistency within the
Council of Ministers department for NGOs, and facilitate communication
between the Council of Ministers and the nongovernmental sector.

On February 23, Dragomir Babic, a human rights activist in the RS,
sent an anonymous letter to the OHR detailing plans for a campaign by
RS officials against Transparency International (TI). Babic came
forward as the letter's author following the temporary closure in July
of TI's Banja Luka office, and subsequently received anonymous death
threats. On May 22, TI published a report accusing RS government
officials of corruption in the handling of entity-level
privatizations, which according to TI resulted in a loss of 500
million convertible marks (approximately $385 million dollars) for the
entity budget. Following the report, Prime Minister Dodik began a
media campaign against TI, and threatened to file suit against TI in
State Court, but had not done so by year's end.

On July 23, an individual threatened Branko Todorovic, the president
of the RS HCHR and a prominent human rights defender, and his family
by telephone. The threat was one of several that Todorovic reportedly
received during the year. Police opened an investigation and provided
protection to Todorovic and his family.

c. Freedom of Religion

The law provides for freedom of religion; however, societal abuses and
discrimination based on religious belief restricted the ability of
adherents of minority religions to worship as they pleased.

In some cases, entity and local governments and police forces allowed
or encouraged an atmosphere in which abuses of religious freedom could
take place. As in 2007 minor attacks on religious objects and
religious officials occurred frequently, but a systematic obstruction
of religious freedom in several high-profile cases remained. The
reluctance of police and prosecutors to investigate and prosecute
crimes against religious minorities aggressively remained a major
obstacle to safeguarding the rights of religious minorities.

The law requires religious communities to register with the Ministry
of Justice; any religious group can register if it has at least 300
adult members who are citizens. Local congregations of the four major
religious communities (Muslim, Serbian Orthodox, Jewish, and Catholic)
registered, as did congregations of several smaller Christian
denominations, including Baptist, evangelical Christian, and Jehovah's
Witnesses, although some Baptist communities encountered problems with
registration.

The State Law on Religious Freedom guarantees the right of every
citizen to religious education. The law calls for an official
representative of the various religious communities to teach religious
studies in all public and private schools. However, authorities did
not always fully implement the law, particularly in segregated school
systems or where there was political resistance from nationalist party
officials at the municipal level. Schools often offered religious
instruction only in the municipality's majority religion. Authorities
sometimes pressured parents to consent to religious instruction for
their children. In some cases, peers and teachers pressured and
discriminated against children who chose not to attend religion
classes.

Some minority religious communities alleged discriminatory hiring
practices for teachers of religion, with teachers from a religious
majority in a given municipality getting salaried positions with
benefits, while other religious teachers were paid a lower amount on
an hourly basis only.

Societal Abuses and Discrimination

Individuals reported ethnically motivated religious violence in many
municipalities. Perpetrators directed violence at ethnic symbols,
clerics, and religious buildings. Civil society representatives noted
that political leaders tended to condemn these incidents only in cases
where members of their own ethnic group were victims.

On March 30, according to press reports, unknown individuals wrote
offensive anti-Muslim graffiti on Mostar's Bulevar buildings. The next
day, citizens reported similar graffiti on Bosniak houses in the
nearby returnees settlement of Podhum, and that unknown individuals
drowned a pig in a local mosque. The Herzegovina-Neretva Canton's
Ministry of Interior spokesman said they notified the police about the
graffiti.

On June 23, unidentified persons reportedly wrote graffiti including
the name of former Serb force commander and accused war criminal Ratko
Mladic on the Salihbegoviceva Mosque in Bijeljina, which was under
construction.

On August 21, two Serb Orthodox priests from Sase, near Srebrenica,
told RS press that Bosniak returnees attacked them. Father Metodije
and Father Grigorije stated that the attackers cursed them and blamed
them for deaths of Bosniaks. The priests reported the attack to
Srebrenica police.

On September 7, unknown persons seriously damaged the Sefer Bey Mosque
in Banja Luka. Local press reported broken windows and damage to the
wall of the mosque. Authorities suspected that the same persons tore
down the fence surrounding the Arnaudija Mosque. An investigation into
the incident was ongoing at year's end.
On December 7, the eve of the Islamic Holiday Eid al-Adha (or Kurban
Bayram), fire destroyed a mosque in the village of Fazlagica Kula, in
Gacko municipality. RS police based in Trebinje conducted an
investigation, which concluded that the fire was caused by improper
electrical wiring wrapped around wooden rafters. Separately, the
country's Islamic Community conducted its own investigation, claiming
arson was the cause of the blaze. Other experts noted that the Islamic
community's investigator did not examine key pieces of forensic
evidence (including the suspect wiring), and questioned the conclusion
of arson. Both Serb and Bosniak politicians expressed regret regarding
the fire, and the RS government promised to provide funding for the
mosque's renovation. The investigation remained open at year's end.

There were a number of controversial and highly politicized cases
involving the illegal construction of religious buildings or monuments
on private or government owned land. In these cases the buildings or
monuments were built to send a political message to religious
minorities about the dominance of the majority group in that area,
creating tensions and impeding the process of reconciliation.

There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts against the country's
Jewish community, which is estimated to be less than 1,000 people.

For a more detailed discussion, see the 2008 International Religious
Freedom Report at www.state.gov/g/drl/irf/rpt.

d. Freedom of Movement, Internally Displaced Persons, Protection of
Refugees, and Stateless Persons

The law provides for freedom of movement within the country, foreign
travel, emigration and repatriation, and the government generally
respected these rights; however, some limits remained in practice. The
government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in providing
protection and assistance to internally displaced persons, refugees,
returning refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, and other
persons of concern.

The law prohibits forced exile, and the government did not employ it.

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)

The return of persons displaced by the 1991-95 wars remained stagnant
during the year, continuing a steady decrease in annual returns.
According to the UNHCR, 1,681 persons (of whom 1,564 were minority
returnees) returned during the year. Government officials and some
NGOs, however, believed that the total number of returns was lower,
since the UNHCR determines returns based on property restitution
rather than physical presence. According to the Ministry of Human
Rights and Refugees, there were an estimated 124,593 registered
displaced persons in the country still seeking return to their pre-war
places of residence.

The difficult economic situation in the country remained the most
significant factor inhibiting returns, with many rural areas
experiencing official unemployment rates above 40 percent. When jobs
were available, minority returnees often complained of discrimination
in hiring. In returnee areas throughout the country, the percentage of
minorities holding municipal employment was neither representative of
current populations, nor consistent with legally mandated percentages
based on the 1991 census, indicating local government failures to
implement and enforce the provisions of the Law on Self
Administration.

A hostile return environment remained in some places. During the year
observers noted a trend of attacks directed against symbols of
minority groups, rather than attacks against individuals. Many
returnees cited authorities' failure to apprehend war criminals as a
disincentive to return. Many displaced persons created permanent lives
away from their prewar homes, and only individuals with few other
options (including a large number of elderly pensioners) tended to
return.

Other factors inhibiting returns included a lack of access to social
benefits, including healthcare, education, and pension benefits. A
lack of available housing and high municipal administration taxes on
documents that were necessary for return, such as birth or land
certificates, also affected the number of returns. Minority returnees
often faced intimidation, discrimination, obstructionism in their
access to education, health care, and pension benefits, and poor
infrastructure.

In the RS, the Ministry for Refugees and Displaced Persons provided
support to Bosniaks and Croats returning to the RS and to Bosnian
Serbs returning to the Federation. The Federation Ministry for
Refugees assisted Croats and Serbs returning to the Federation, and
Bosniaks and Croats returning to the RS. Both entity-level refugee
ministries provided limited reconstruction assistance to returnees and
also committed part of their budgets toward joint projects that the
State Commission for Refugees determined.

Protection of Refugees

The law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee status in
accordance with the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of
Refugees and its 1967 protocol, and the government has established a
system for providing protection to refugees.

In practice, the government provided protection against the expulsion
or return of refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would
be threatened.

During the year, the government did not grant temporary protection to
any persons considered not to qualify as refugees under the 1951
convention and the 1967 protocol.

Asylum seekers with pending claims, regardless of national origin, may
remain in asylum centers until their claims are adjudicated, which is
normally three months, though in some cases longer. If the decision is
negative, the asylum seekers have the right to file a complaint, on
which the court is required to render a final decision within two
months. During this time an asylum seeker maintains the right to
remain in the asylum center. Asylum seekers present in the country
have the right to education and legal redress for human rights
complaints. However, they do not have the right to employment. If
their asylum application is approved, they then are eligible for
employment.

Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
Change Their Government

The law provides citizens with the right to change their government
peacefully.

Elections and Political Participation

OSCE observers concluded that the 2006 general elections had been
conducted largely in line with international standards but noted
problems, including the inability of numerous voters to find their
names on voter registers, authorities directing voters to incorrect
polling stations because of changes in the registration process, group
voting, irregularities in the counting process, and a few cases of
voter intimidation. International observers also declared that the
2006 RS special elections to replace RS President Milan Jelic, who
died in office, were free and fair.

Authorities conducted the October 5 municipal elections in an orderly
manner with local election commissions or independent observers
reporting only minor irregularities at polling stations to the state-
level Central Election Commission. Turnout was generally lower in
larger cities and higher in a few hotly contested rural areas.

On September 29, RS special police units in Doboj arrested the
Director of the Center for Social Welfare and 16 SDS activists on
suspicion of buying votes ahead of the October 5 elections. The group
was released pending trial. The case is currently before the Basic
Court in Doboj.

Political parties generally operated without restriction or outside
influence. While political parties did not compel individuals to
become members, many viewed membership in the leading party of any
given area as the surest way of obtaining and retaining jobs in
government owned companies and especially positions on steering boards
of profitable, public companies including the electric, telecom, and
media industries. Nevertheless, the ruling party did not exclude
opposition parties from participation in political life. Membership in
large, well-funded parties conferred formal advantages, as party
members often excluded nonparty members from appointment to many key
government positions.

Individuals and parties representing a wide spectrum of political
views could freely declare their candidacies and run for election.
Under a 2000 ruling by the country's Constitutional Court, constituent
people (Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks) and "others" must be adequately
represented in entity, cantonal, and municipal government
institutions. This representation was to be based on the 1991 census
until the returns process (as described in Annex Seven of the Dayton
Accords) is completed. However, this decision has not been respected
in practice. Separate from the three constituent peoples, there were
16 recognized national minority groups.

Nationalist rhetoric dominated political exchanges. Bosniak
nationalist politicians called for the abolition of the RS and the
removal of Srebrenica from the RS. Serb politicians threatened to call
a referendum in the RS to secede from the state, and regularly made
statements, often deliberately inaccurate, designed to delegitimize
and undermine the state. Croat politicians called for the
establishment of a third majority-Croat entity.

The election law requires that at least 30 percent of political party
candidates be women. At year's end seven of 57 members of the
Parliamentary Assembly were women. There were no women in the nine-
member Council of Ministers, although there were two female deputy
ministers. At the entity-level, women held three of 22 leadership
positions in the Federation and two of 22 leadership positions in the
RS.

Minorities remained severely underrepresented in government. There
were no members of a minority group in the Parliamentary Assembly and
one minority member in the Council of Ministers. Representatives of
the Jewish and Romani communities filed lawsuits before the ECHR
because of a provision in the constitution that precludes
"others" (i.e. those outside the three ethnic constituencies) from
becoming president. A Bosniak from Srebrenica also filed a lawsuit at
the ECHR because the RS constitution precludes non-Serbs from running
for RS president.

Government Corruption and Transparency

The law provides for criminal penalties for official corruption,
however, the government did not implement the law effectively, and
officials frequently engaged in corrupt actions with impunity. There
is no government agency with a mandate to combat government
corruption.

While the law prohibits citizens from holding positions of public
responsibility if they have pending criminal indictments against them,
this prohibition was not always observed in practice.

On June 3, the appellate division of the State Court returned the
retrial of Dragan Covic to a cantonal court for processing. The State
Court convicted Covic in 2006 of one count of abuse of office and
sentenced him to five years in prison in connection with a bribery
case involving former president Mato Tadic.

In June, the State Court found Mladen Ivanic, president of the Party
for Democratic Progress and a House of Peoples delegate, guilty of
misuse of public funds when he was RS prime minister from 2000-02. The
court sentenced him to 18 months in prison. An appeal was pending at
year's end.

During the year corruption watchdog TI maintained its allegation that
Prime Minister Dodik misappropriated public funds and pocketed revenue
from the privatization of several formerly state-owned enterprises.
Dodik claimed in press interviews that TI was engaging in blackmail
and racketeering. TI charged that Dodik's allegations were attempts at
retaliation and complained that state-level judicial institutions
failed to investigate the case against Dodik.

Candidates for certain public offices, including parliamentarians at
the state and entity levels, and members of the Council of Ministers
and entity governments, are subject to financial disclosure laws. The
Central Election Commission is responsible for ensuring compliance
with these laws.

Although the law provides for citizen access to government records,
many government agencies did not comply with the law. According to the
law, the government must provide an explanation for any denial of
access, and citizens may appeal denials in the court system or to the
ombudsman's offices. In practice the government sometimes failed to
provide the required explanation for denial of access; however, if
citizens appealed to the ombudsman, the courts, or legal aid, the
government generally provided an explanation. Public awareness of the
law remained low.

Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights

A wide variety of domestic and international human rights groups and
NGOs generally operated without government restriction, investigating
and publishing their findings on human rights cases. For example, the
BiH HCHR and the RS HCHR continued to actively report on a wide range
of human rights abuses. However, government officials were often
inefficient and slow to respond to their recommendations.

The government cooperated fully with international organizations such
as OHR, which has special powers over the government, as well as other
international organizations, such as the ICRC and the OSCE.

Citizens' remedies for human rights violations included filing civil
suits or seeking assistance from the Office of the Ombudsman. However,
the ombudsman's recommendations were not binding. The law establishes
a single state-level ombudsman institution composed of three members
representing the country's three constituent groups. Political
appointments to the new ombudsman institution were confirmed on
December 4, having been significantly delayed by political
maneuvering.

Section 5 Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons

The law prohibits discrimination based on race, gender, disability,
language, or other social status; however, the government did not
enforce the law effectively. Discrimination against minorities, women,
sexual minorities, persons with disabilities, and others was
pervasive.

Women

Rape and spousal rape are illegal; the maximum penalty for either
crime is 15 years' imprisonment. A sense of shame reportedly prevented
some rape victims from complaining to authorities. While police
generally responded to reports of sexual assault, they tended not to
treat reports of spousal rape with the same seriousness.

Violence against women, including domestic violence and sexual
assault, remained a widespread and underreported problem. According to
general NGO estimates, one out of every three Bosnian women was a
victim of domestic violence. Both the Federation and RS have adopted
laws on domestic violence that require police to remove the offender
from the family home. Experts estimated that only one in 10 victims of
domestic violence reported the crime to police. As of October, the RS
domestic violence hotline received 668 reports of domestic violence.

Police received specialized training in handling cases of domestic
violence, and there were four hotlines operating in the Federation and
the RS that provided assistance and counseling to domestic violence
victims. There were shelters in Mostar, Tuzla, Banja Luka, Sarajevo,
Bihac, Zenica, and Modrica to assist victims of domestic violence.

Prostitution is illegal. The law treats procuring as a major crime,
but prostitution and solicitation are misdemeanors punishable by a
fine only. Police raids on bars and brothels drove prostitution
further underground, and prostitution frequently occurred in private
apartments or on an outcall basis. Single mothers, minorities, or
other vulnerable women, particularly from economically depressed rural
areas, were at higher risk of being recruited for sexual exploitation.

The law prohibits sexual harassment, but it was a serious problem that
was poorly understood by the general population. Many women surveyed
by NGOs reported experiencing sexual harassment in their workplaces.
Pornography in the workplace was common. Victims almost never filed
complaints, largely because they did not recognize their experiences
as harassment and were not aware of their legal rights.

The law prohibits gender-based discrimination. Women have equal legal
status to men in family law and property law, and authorities treated
women equally in practice throughout the judicial system. The
government's Agency for Gender Equality worked to inform women of
their legal rights. The Federation, RS, and state-level parliaments
had committees for gender equality.

Women served as judges, doctors, and professors, although few women
held positions of substantial economic or political power. Authorities
documented a small but increasing number of gender-related
discrimination cases. Anecdotal accounts indicated that women and men
generally received equal pay for equal work at government owned
enterprises but not always at private businesses. The differential in
unemloyment rates within the Federation (the only available data) was
23.1 percent for men and 28.3 percent for women. Women in all parts of
the country had problems with nonpayment of maternity leave allowances
and the unwarranted dismissal of pregnant women and new mothers. Many
job announcements openly advertised discriminatory criteria, such as
age and physical appearance, for female applicants. Women remained
underrepresented in law enforcement agencies, although there was
continued progress.

Children

The governments of both entities were generally committed to the
rights and welfare of children; however, social services for children
were extremely limited. The Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees had
a role in enforcing children's rights. Children with disabilities
lacked sufficient medical care and educational opportunities.

According to some estimates, the government failed to register the
births of approximately 6,000 children in the country, most of whom
were believed to be Roma. This results in significant obstacles for
these children to access government services, in particular social,
educational, and health benefits.

While education is free and compulsory through age 15, schools
required parents to pay for textbooks, lunches, and transportation,
which some families could not afford, causing some children to drop
out of school. A lack of reliable monitoring and statistics on
enrollment and dropout rates hindered efforts to ensure that school-
age children received an education. The law requires children with
special needs to attend regular classes, but schools were often unable
to accommodate them.

According to the country's Roma Council, less than 35 percent of
Romani children attended school regularly. Many Romani children were
unable to attend school because of extremely poor living conditions,
lack of proper clothing, and the inability or unwillingness of
families to pay school-related expenses. Authorities provided
textbooks, meal allowances, and transportation allowances for Romani
children. Verbal harassment from other students, language problems,
and registration costs and requirements also contributed to the
exclusion of Roma from schools, despite the desire of many parents to
enroll their children. Authorities failed to provide textbooks that
included topics related to Romani culture and history.

Students in minority areas frequently faced a hostile environment.
Obstruction by nationalist politicians and government officials slowed
efforts to abolish school segregation and enact other reforms.
Federation cantonal governments and the Ministry of Education in the
RS pressured school directors at the primary and secondary level, and
several schools were directed by hard-line political figures.

Laws which provided for administrative and legal unification of the 52
cases of "two schools under one roof," with separate classes for
Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks, did not lead to integrated classrooms,
although shared extracurricular activities, school entrances and
recreation facilities sometimes resulted. In some areas of the
country, notably Vitez in central Bosnia and Prozor-Rama and Stolac in
Herzegovina, local officials and parents sought to establish complete
physical segregation of Bosniak and Croat students. Many schools
effectively entrenched segregation and discrimination. In the RS, non-
Serbs made up less than 5 percent of the teaching staff in primary and
secondary schools. In the Federation, minority teachers made up
between 5 and 8 percent of all teachers, depending on the canton.
Children in primary and secondary schools studied from what some NGOs
described as "divergent, ethnically-specific curricula," including
ethnically homogenous classes and books on geography and history that
offered alternate explanations of ethnicity, religion, and national
borders.

In the Stolac secondary school, the director refused to sign 160
diplomas for Bosniak graduates of the school, claiming the Bosniak
section of the school was not administratively part of the school,
despite his having signed several previous years' diplomas for
Bosniaks. This action hindered the onward enrollment of the Bosniak
students and required intervention at the highest political levels in
the country to resolve.

Family violence against children was a problem. Police investigated
and prosecuted individual cases of child abuse. While there were no
statistics available on the extent of the problem, some NGOs estimated
that one in four families experienced some form of domestic violence.
Municipal centers for social work were responsible for protecting
children's rights, but often lacked resources and alternative housing
for children who ran away from home to escape abuse or those children
whom they needed to remove from abusive homes.

Trafficking in children for sexual exploitation and sometimes begging
was a problem. Child begging was common among Romani communities;
including infants (with adults), and cases in which Romani parents
sent children as young as four out to beg on street corners, often
begging 10 or more hours per day in all weather conditions.

In certain Romani communities, girls married between the ages of 12
and 14. Apart from efforts to increase Romani participation in
education, there were no programs aimed specifically at reducing the
incidence of child marriage.

Trafficking in Persons

The law prohibits all forms of trafficking in persons; however,
individuals and organized crime syndicates trafficked women and
children for sexual exploitation, and sometimes children and adults,
particularly from the Romani community, for begging and labor. There
were reports that public officials were involved in trafficking.

The country was primarily a country of origin for women and girls
trafficked domestically for sexual exploitation, and, to a lesser
extent, a destination and transit point for foreign trafficking. More
than half of all documented trafficking victims were minors.
Authorities observed a continuing trend of victims primarily being
trafficked domestically during the year, far surpassing the number of
foreign victims. During the year there were cases of Romani children
trafficked to and within the country for forced labor or begging.

During the year trafficking modalities continued to change. Due to
effective legal mechanisms and vigorous actions to combat trafficking,
the number of identified victims continued to decline, according to
NGO and state-level contacts. Trafficking remained underground, often
in private apartments, motels, and gas stations. There were no
reliable estimates on the number of victims trafficked during the
year; police raids forced trafficking further underground, increasing
the difficulty of estimating the scope of the problem. During the year
the Office of the State Anti-trafficking Coordinator registered 29 new
trafficking victims through its referral mechanism.

The majority of women trafficked to the country came from Serbia or
other East European countries. While no reliable estimates were
available, individuals and organized crime syndicates may have
trafficked a number on to Western Europe. Most trafficked women
entered the country through Serbia or Montenegro. Those who transited
the country generally continued on via Croatia. Authorities also found
Bosnian victims in other parts of Europe. During the year four
trafficking victims were repatriated to the country through
international referral mechanisms. Traffickers came from a variety of
backgrounds, including freelance operators and local organized crime
networks.

Traffickers coerced victims to remain in these situations through
intimidation, verbal threats, seizure of passports, withholding of
food and medical care, and physical and sexual assault.

Under the law trafficking is a state-level crime that carries a
sentence of up to 10 years in prison. During the year, four cases
involving trafficking offenses were prosecuted at the state level, and
a number at the entity and cantonal level. The Ministry of Security is
responsible for coordinating anti-trafficking law enforcement at all
levels of government, but it was understaffed and lacked the capacity
to comprehensively manage anti-trafficking activities.

The state prosecutor's office has exclusive jurisdiction over
trafficking cases and can decide which cases to prosecute at the state
level. The state anti-trafficking coordinator, whose mandate included
coordination of victim protection efforts among NGOs, police, and
government institutions, as well as law enforcement, reported directly
to the Ministry of Security. The chief state prosecutor chaired a
nationwide interagency investigative anti-trafficking strike force
that included prosecutors, police, and financial investigators.

If screening established that a person was a trafficking victim,
authorities did not prosecute that person for immigration or
prostitution violations. In most cases, authorities voluntarily
repatriated foreign victims. Authorities often deported and
occasionally prosecuted for immigration and other violations persons
that law enforcement determined were not trafficking victims.

There continued to be reports of police and other official involvement
in trafficking, particularly at the local level. Victims' groups
alleged that, because of strong local networks, local police often
willfully ignored or actively protected consumers or perpetrators of
trafficking activity, often accepting bribes in return. To date there
have been only a few documented cases of official involvement in
trafficking, and no official indictments have been made.

On May 28, the Center for Public Security in Banja Luka arrested five
persons in Banja Luka, Srbac, and Laktasi for trafficking,
prostitution, and sexual violence of a juvenile female. The police
turned the individuals over to the district prosecutor's office in
Banja Luka. The main defendant was charged with the criminal act of
human trafficking, while the remaining four were charged with sexual
abuse of a minor. A Banja Luka court issued a first instance verdict
to the main defendant, sentencing him to 18 months of imprisonment;
the second defendant received 12 months, the third and fourth received
six months, and the fifth defendant received three months of
imprisonment.

In an unrelated case, on June 12, the Banja Luka Center for Public
Security arrested four persons for trafficking for prostitution and
sexual abuse of a minor. The main defendant in this case is charged
with the criminal act of human trafficking, while three remaining
defendants were charged for sexual abuse of a minor. The trial was
ongoing at year's end.

The trial of the nine individuals that authorities arrested in
December 2007 for trafficking three juvenile girls in the RS
municipality of Derventa was ongoing at year's end.

During the year authorities distributed an antitrafficking manual to
teachers for use in the curriculum of all the country's schools.
Authorities also continued their efforts to assist victims by working
with local NGOs to support shelters and other services and by
conducting extensive training for police, prosecutors, judges,
teachers, and social workers.

The country has a set of rules that provide a binding standard of
protection for domestic trafficking victims and standard operating
procedures for the prevention, identification, protection, and
assistance of victims and witnesses who are citizens. In practice,
variation in laws related to trafficking victims at different levels
of government often caused complications and lack of clarity in the
implementation of these rules.

The government has a formal victim referral mechanism and memoranda of
understanding with six NGOs that ran shelters for trafficking victims.
NGOs operated safe houses in Sarajevo, Zenica, Mostar, Doboj, Modrica,
Bihac, and Bijeljina. At the shelters, victims received medical care,
psychological counseling, legal assistance, repatriation assistance,
and limited vocational training. Police effectively provided
protection for the shelters.

The State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report can be
found at www.state.gov/g/tip.

Persons with Disabilities

The law in both entities prohibits discrimination against persons with
disabilities; however, there was discrimination against persons with
disabilities in employment, education, access to health care and other
state services.

In the Federation, the law mandates that all existing public buildings
be retrofitted to provide access to persons with disabilities by
November 2007 and that new buildings must also be accessible. This
deadline passed without full implementation, and buildings were rarely
accessible to persons with disabilities. The RS had comparable laws
for public access, and progress on retrofitting older public buildings
remained slow.

There was clear discrimination between different categories of persons
with disabilities, although the vast majority of such persons were
unemployed. Persons with disabilities resulting from service during
the 1991-95 wars were given a privileged status above civilian war
victims and persons who were born with disabilities. Many individuals
with disabilities lived in institutions, although a growing number of
programs for children with disabilities were available in schools. One
NGO estimated that 30 percent of persons with disabilities residing in
institutions were capable of independent living if housing and
resources were available.

National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Ethnic differences remained a powerful force in the country, although
mixed communities existed peacefully in a number of areas.

Attacks on ethnic and religious objects continued during the year.
Police conducted investigations and sometimes charged perpetrators of
ethnically motivated hate crimes, but often blamed the attacks on
radicals, intoxicated or mentally unstable individuals, or rowdy youth
without additional investigation. Harassment and discrimination
against minorities continued throughout the country, often centering
on property disputes. These problems most often included desecration
of graves, graffiti, arson, damage to houses of worship, verbal
harassment, dismissal from work, threats, and assaults.

Ethnic discrimination in employment and education remained key
problems. Employers did not reverse widespread firing of ethnic
minorities during and after the war in most cases, and employers often
hired members of the local ethnic majority over minorities. Widespread
ethnic discrimination in employment and failure on the part of state-
level and entity-level officials to prevent such discrimination
continued. Many smaller enterprises were sold to politically connected
individuals, usually members of the majority group in their
communities. These enterprises generally did not employ minorities.

The Roma population, estimated at 40,000 to 80,000, faced serious
difficulties in exercising the full range of fundamental human rights
provided to them under the law. Access to employment, education, and
government services were particular problems. The BiH HCHR estimated
that only 1 percent of the working-age Romani population was employed
and indicated that employers usually downsized Roma first during a
reduction in force. Mainstream society often excluded many Roma from
public life because they lacked birth certificates, identification
cards, or a registered residence, which also prevented them from
access to health care, education or registering to vote. Only a small
number of adult Roma were officially employed, and Roma lacked social
support.

On September 4, the country signed the "Decade of Roma Inclusion
2005-2015," a regional program meant to generate funding from both the
European Union and the national government for the improvement of
Romani education, employment, health, and housing. The government
previously adopted and enacted action plans for participation in the
"decade" through 2007-08.

Other Societal Abuses and Discrimination

While the law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation, it was not enforced in practice, and there was frequent
societal discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and
transgender persons.

Gays and lesbians who were open about their orientation faced frequent
harassment and discrimination, including termination from employment.
In some cases, dismissal letters explicitly stated that sexual
orientation was the cause of termination, making it extremely
difficult for them to find another job.

On September 24-26, the Q Association organized the first "Queer
Sarajevo Festival" in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Announcement of the
festival met with harsh, often discriminatory commentary by Islamic
community leaders and some political party leaders. The NGO received
numerous threats; press coverage was generally negative and, in some
cases, discriminatory. Some organizations and businesses withdrew
their support of the festival, reportedly due to intimidation by
religious groups. On September 24, the night of the festival's
opening, a group of approximately 50 young men marched past the
opening, chanting obscenities and threats against festival
participants. Immediately following the opening of the festival, a
group of several dozen youths attacked and injured at least eight
persons, including two journalists and one police officer.

Government statistics put the number of officially-registered cases of
HIV/AIDS in the country at less than 200. The NGO XY-Association for
Sexual and Reproductive Health estimated that the actual number of
cases was approximately 600, while the UN Program on HIV/AIDS
estimated the number at less than 1,000. There was a significant
stigma against persons with HIV/AIDS, a general lack of awareness of
HIV/AIDS, and extremely limited resources to identify and assist those
affected.

Section 6 Worker Rights

a. The Right of Association

The law allows workers in both entities (except members of the
military) to form and join independent unions of their choice, which
are registered in that entity, without previous authorization or
excessive requirements, and workers did so in practice. The state-
level government has yet to finalize the registration of the
Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
an umbrella organization of entity-level unions at the state level.
The problem, which has been ongoing since 2001, lies both with the
ineffective state-level government NGO registration system and with
the Federation branch of the Confederation Union, which has demanded
retroactive registration to recognize its 100-year history, something
no other union has received (or requested) when filing for
registration.

The law provides for the right to conduct union activities without
interference; however, authorities did not impose sanctions against
employers who obstructed worker organizing and activity. In the
prevailing atmosphere of high unemployment, many believed that worker
rights violations were considered a lower priority for ministry
inspectors, as state officials instead focused on bolstering state
revenues by cracking down on unregistered employees and employers that
did not pay taxes. Some unions reported that employers threatened
employees of private companies with dismissal if they joined a union.
There was at least one report of a dismissal of a trade union leader
following privatization of his employer.

The law provides for the right to strike, and workers exercised this
right in practice. The Law on Strikes, separate from the Labor Law,
establishes the regulations related to the right to strike, in both
entities. In the Federation, the current Law on Strikes is fairly
restrictive, with burdensome requirements the workers must fulfill in
order to conduct a strike. The new RS Law on Strikes, adopted November
5 by the RS Parliament, eliminates some bureaucratic hurdles necessary
to carry out a strike.

b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

The right to bargain collectively is provided by law in the RS and in
a general collective agreement in the Federation. However, collective
bargaining in both entities did not involve voluntary direct
negotiation between a union and individual employers, but rather work
agreements between the government and workers in the public sector. In
the Federation, there were no collective bargaining agreements between
private employers and unions. In the RS, the general collective
bargaining agreement applied to all workers and was negotiated between
unions, the government, and employers. This general agreement applied
to private companies, regardless of whether their workers were union
members, and generally covered issues of work hours, social
contributions and the minimum wage.

In the Federation, the law stipulates that if the court finds that the
employer's cancellation of the employment contract is unlawful, the
court can order reinstatement of the employee. Since union activity
discrimination is unlawful, this would result in reinstatement of the
employee.

The law prohibits discrimination by employers against union members
and organizers; however, means of protection against retaliation for
union activity were not strong and discrimination continued. In
practice, the government does not impose fines on employers who
prevent workers from unionizing, a practice that was becoming more
prevalent as private sector businesses replace ex-Yugoslav state owned
enterprises that had a traditional union culture. Barriers to
employees bringing complaints against employers included high
unemployment, a backlogged court system, and the large number of
unregistered workers in the gray economy.

There are no special laws or exemptions from regular labor laws in the
country's four export processing zones.

c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

The law prohibits forced or compulsory labor, including by children;
however, there were reports that individuals and organized crime
syndicates trafficked women and children for commercial sexual
exploitation and sometimes for begging and labor. Victims reported
working in conditions akin to slavery, with little or no financial
support. In some cases, traffickers provided victims with some funds,
despite the otherwise-coercive environment victims found themselves
in.

d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for
Employment

Entity-level labor laws restrict child labor, and the entity
governments implemented these laws in practice. The minimum age for
employment of children in the Federation and in the RS is 15 years;
minors between the ages of 15 to 18 must provide a valid health
certificate in order to work. The law prohibits children from
performing hazardous labor. In the Federation, minors are prohibited
from "night work," except in exceptional circumstances. Although child
labor was not generally a problem, children sometimes assisted their
families with farm work and odd jobs.

Trafficking in children for sexual exploitation and sometimes for
labor and begging was a problem.

Entity governments are responsible for enforcing child labor laws.
Neither entity had inspectors dedicated solely to child labor
inspections. Authorities investigated violations of child labor laws
as part of a general labor inspection. Both entities' labor
inspectorates reported that they had not found significant violations
of child labor laws in the workplace, although they did not conduct
reviews of children working on family farms.

e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

The hourly minimum wage in the Federation was 1.75 convertible marks
(approximately $1.10) and in the RS the monthly minimum wage was 250
convertible marks ($165); however, neither provided a decent standard
of living for a worker and family. In early December the RS National
Assembly approved an increase of the minimum wage to 320 convertible
marks ($212) effective January 1, 2009, although this still does not
provide an adequate standard of living for a family. In the
Federation, the minimum wage was established by a joint commission
that included representation of employers, workers, and the Federation
government. The commission meets annually to determine the minimum
wage, and increased the wage by 12 percent in September.

Many workers had outstanding claims for back payment of salaries and
pensions. The law requires employers in both entities to make
substantial mandatory contributions to pension and health care funds;
as a result, to avoid paying high social welfare benefits, employers
often did not officially register their employees, leaving employees
without access to public health care and unable to officially transfer
to another employer. The employer obligation to the government for
large social contributions led to an increase in black market
employment, as employers preferred employees that were "off the books"
to official salaried employees.

Many employers were behind, sometimes for years, in paying salaries or
providing health and pension benefits to employees of public works and
institutions.

The legal workweek in both entities is 40 hours; however, seasonal
workers may work up to 60 hours per week. The law limits overtime to
10 hours per week in both entities; the Federation has no provision
for premium pay, while the RS requires a 30 percent premium. An
employee in the RS may volunteer for an additional 10 hours in
exceptional circumstances. Federation and RS laws require a minimum
rest period of 30 minutes during the workday.

Authorities did not adequately enforce regulations related to
acceptable work conditions. While entity labor inspectorates made some
effort to enforce registration of employees, they limited most
inspections to conditions affecting the officially registered
workforce. Since the courts only served as recourse for complaints
involving registered workers, the RS labor inspectorate had to submit
fines and penalties for court approval; because of court backlogs,
this system was not effective, and many workers for practical purposes
worked without protections. The RS Law on Health and Safety holds
employers responsible for analyzing and improving working conditions.

The law provides workers the right to remove themselves from
situations that endanger their health or safety without jeopardy to
their employment; however, this right was not effectively enforced in
practice. Worker's rights extended to all official, i.e. registered,
workers, including migrant and temporary workers. According to
informal estimates, approximately one-quarter of the total work force
is unregistered.