Balkan Insight Cited in Council of Europe Commission Report

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The latest European Commission against Racism and Intolerance country report on Bosnia and Herzegovina quotes articles from BIRN’s flagship publication Balkan Insight.

The recently-published report by the ECRI, the human rights monitoring body of the Council of Europe, repeatedly cites articles from Balkan Insight published between 2013-2016.

The articles include pieces dealing with hate speech, elections, the schooling system, incidents that sparked ethnic tensions, attacks on the LGBT community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and problems related to releasing census data due to political disputes.

The ECRI report concluded that politicians in the country were still resistant to ehthic integration.

“While welcoming the quick reaction by the politicians to the attacks against returnees, and measures taken to resolve problems of discrimination faced by the Roma community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the anti-racism commission denounced a persistent lack of political will to build an inclusive society in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, the report said.

“Ethnically segregated education systems are still in place and the political elites of the three main ethnic groups show no willingness to embrace integrated schools. Inter-ethnic tensions remain dangerously high and hate speech is still frequently used in the public discourse,” it added.