LGBTQ rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina | |
|---|---|
 Location of Bosnia and Herzegovina (green) | |
| Legal status | Legal since 1858 when part of the Ottoman Empire, criminalized upon incorpotation into the Austria-Hungary in 1878, made legal again in 2003 |
| Gender identity | Transgender people allowed to change gender; surgery is required |
| Military | Gays, lesbians and bisexuals allowed to serve |
| Discrimination protections | Sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status protections (see below) |
| Family rights | |
| Recognition of relationships | No recognition of same-sex relationships |
| Adoption | Not recognised |
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people inBosnia and Herzegovina may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female forms of same-sex sexual activity are legal in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is asecular country composed of mainlyMuslims andChristians (Catholic andOrthodox). While officially secular,religion plays an important role in Bosnian society. As such, attitudes towards members of the LGBT community tend to be quiteconservative.[1] Some LGBT events, most notably theQueer Sarajevo Festival 2008, have ended in violence, when "a combination offootball fans andreligious extremists" stormed the festival while shoutingdeath threats and religious phrases. According to a 2015 survey, 51% of LGBT Bosnians and Herzegovinians reported some form ofdiscrimination directed against them, including verbal abuse, harassment, andphysical violence.[2]
Nevertheless, attitudes are changing. In 2016, thegovernment of Bosnia and Herzegovina approved a comprehensive anti-discrimination law, banning discrimination on account of one'ssexual orientation,gender identity and sex characteristics. More and moregay bars and venues have opened, especially in the capital city ofSarajevo.[1]Bosnia and Herzegovina's desire to join theEuropean Union has also played an important role in the Government's approach to LGBT rights.[3] The associationILGA-Europe has ranked Bosnia and Herzegovina 22 out of the 49 countries in theCouncil of Europe in terms of LGBT rights legislation.[4]
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a federation consisting of twoentities, namely theFederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and theRepublika Srpska. Same-sex sexual activity was legalized in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1996 and in the Republika Srpska in 1998, by those two entities adopting their own criminal laws.[5] TheBrčko District followed suit and legalized homosexuality in 2003, making it legal nationwide since then.[6] The age of consent is equal and set at 14 years, regardless of gender and/or sexual orientation (having sexual relations with a person under 14 is consideredstatutory rape).[7]
In 1858,the Ottoman Empire legalized same-sex sexual intercourse.[8]
There is no legal recognition of same-sex couples on a national or subnational level. TheConstitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina remains silent on gender eligibility for a marriage, and on a subnational scale, both entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska, limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, as prescribed by their respective family codes.[9]
On 19 October 2018, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) adopted a request for the legalisation ofcivil unions. "The said item was on the session agenda and it was adopted in the same form as it was proposed,"FBiH Prime MinisterFadil Novalić said. The Government will now form a working group to analyse the proposal, which will need to be later adopted by theParliament.[10] The working group was established in January 2020 and was due to start working in April 2020, but the start was postponed due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[11]
Article 12 of theLaw on Equality of Sexes (Bosnian:Zakon o ravnopravnosti spolova), adopted in early 2003, prohibits discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation.[12] Sexual orientation is not explicitly defined, however.
The labour law of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) also explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, as does Brčko District's labour law.[3]
TheLaw Against Discrimination (Bosnian:Zakon o zabrani diskriminacije) was adopted in 2009, prohibiting discrimination based on sex, gender expression and sexual orientation. Furthermore, the law forbids harassment and segregation on the basis of sexual orientation.[13] Article 2 of the law states as follows:[14]
Discrimination, in terms of this Law, shall be any different treatment including any exclusion, limitation or preference based on real or perceived grounds towards any person or group of persons, their relatives, or persons otherwise associated with them, on the grounds of their race, skin colour, language, religion, ethnic affiliation, disability, age, national or social background, connection to a national minority, political or other persuasion, property, membership in trade union or any other association, education, social status and sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, sexual characteristics, as well as any other circumstance serving the purpose of or resulting in prevention or restriction of any individual from enjoyment or realization, on equal footing, of rights and freedoms in all areas of life.
In July 2016, theBosnian Parliament adopted a bill amending anti-discrimination laws to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics.[15][16]
In April 2016, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina approved amendments to its Criminal Code by outlawing hate crimes on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The law was published in the official gazette on 15 June 2016. Similar bans already existed in Republika Srpska and the Brčko District.[17][18][19]
Transgender people may change their legal gender in Bosnia and Herzegovina after having undergonesex reassignment surgery and other medical treatments.[3][4]
Quite a few organizations have been working on LGBT rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Organisation Q (Udruženje Q) was the first LGBT organization to register in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Organization Q works for "the promotion and protection ofculture, identities and human rights ofqueer persons", and was founded in September 2002. It formally registered in February 2004.[5]
Logos was initially registered at the end of 2005 under the name of the Initiative for Visibility ofQueer Muslims (IIVQM), but shortly after changed its name to Logos and re-registered in 2006.[5] Equilibrium was registered in mid-2009 and was the first organization to work out ofBanja Luka. Both organizations closed after two years.[3]
Other organizations include Okvir and Simosyon (which both registered in 2011), Viktorija, theSarajevo Open Centre (Sarajevski Otvoreni Centar), BUKA (Bosnian:Banjalučko Udruženje Kvir Aktivista,lit. 'Banja Luka Association of Queer Activists', which registered in 2013), LibertaMo Association (which began working in 2015), and theMostar and theTuzla open centers.[3][5]
Queer Sarajevo Festival 2008 started with approximately a dozen individuals attacked at the end of the first day on 24 September 2008. Eight people, one policeman included, were reported to have been injured after a large group of Wahhabi (Salafis) and others islamists hooligans attacked visitors and the crowds. According to the organizers of the four-day event, police allowed a non-approved protest and anti-gay protestors to get too close to the venue, thus endangering the participants.[20]
The festival, organised by Organization Q, opened in theAcademy of Fine Arts in the centre of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The attacks forced the organizers to make the rest of the festival a private event and to cancel it a couple of days later. Although Organization Q had organized public events before, this festival was the first cultural event of this kind in history of Sarajevo.[20]
In 2014, theConstitutional Court ruled that the authorities had failed to protect the freedom of assembly of the 2008 festival participants.[3]
On 1 February 2014, fourteen masked men stormed into the Merlinka Festival, shoutinghomophobic insults. Three participants were injured. Police arrived just after the attackers left, and were criticised for doing very little in finding and prosecuting the attackers.[21] The festival continued the following day, with no incident, and with the full protection of the police force.[4]
BIH Pride March, the country's first pride event was held on 9 September 2019 in the capitalSarajevo.[22] An estimated 2,000 people marched in the firstpride parade of Bosnia and Herzegovina, making the country the lastformer Yugoslav nation to hold a pride event.[23]
In March 2023, activists at the offices ofTransparency International, claimed that they were attacked by a group of men after a local event was banned by police. According to the activists, a few dozen men chased them through the streets. The attack came after LGBT film screenings and discussions were cancelled by police for security concerns and afterRepublika Srpska President,Milorad Dodik, called LGBT people harassers and stated that they should be prevented from gathering. Banja Luka's mayor,Draško Stanivuković, where the attack took place, stated that the LGBT community should stay in Sarajevo and away from smaller cities like Banja Luka.[24]
A 2015 survey found 48% of Bosnians would try tocure their child if they came out as gay. Another 16% stated that they would stop communicating with their child altogether. It also found 19% of Bosnia and Herzegovina's population supported granting same-sex couples some rights associated with marriage, such as economic and social rights.[3]
According to aPew Research poll published in 2017, 13% of respondents in Bosnia and Herzegovina supportedsame-sex marriage, with 84% opposed. It showed that 82% ofBosnians believed thathomosexuality should not be accepted by society.[25][26]
According to a poll published in 2019, before the first gay pride parade in Sarajevo, 24% of respondents supported the parade, with 72% against. 14% of respondents stated that they supported the legalisation of same-sex marriage, with 81% opposed. The poll was conducted inSarajevo Canton, not covering the rest of the country.[27]
According to a 2021 study, the first LGBT+ Pride parade in Sarajevo led to increased support forLGBT activism in Sarajevo. It did not however diffuse nationwide.[28]
| Same-sex sexual activity legal |  (Since 2003, nationwide) |
| Equal age of consent (14) | (Since 2003, nationwide) |
| Anti-discrimination laws in employment only | (Since 2003) |
| Anti-discrimination laws in the provision of goods and services | (Since 2003) |
| Anti-discrimination laws in all other areas (incl. indirect discrimination, hate speech) | (Since 2009) |
| Hate crimes laws include sexual orientation and gender identity | (Since 2016, nationwide) |
| Same-sex marriages |  |
| Recognition of same-sex couples | |
| Recognition of adoption for single people regardless of sexual orientation | |
| Stepchild adoption by same-sex couples | |
| Joint adoption by same-sex couples | |
| Gays, lesbians and bisexuals allowed to serve openly in the military | |
| Right to change legal gender | |
| Access to IVF for lesbians | |
| Commercial surrogacy for gay male couples | |
| MSMs allowed to donate blood | |
