All News on Social Issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina

A new approach to the Western Balkans? Bosnia, the EU and the US

The European Commission is set to recommend that the EU open accession talks with Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite lingering ethnic divisions in the Western Balkan country. At the same time, US Special Representative to the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar is also in the region.

Bulgarians are being Investigated for Trafficking Illegal Migrants in Croatia

Croatian police are investigating a total of 11 people for illegal trafficking of 117 migrants in Karlovac County, Croatia. Authorities say there were six separate incidents between last Thursday and Monday. Bulgarians are also among the suspects, BTA reported.

June Pride Parades and the Digital Ripple Effects on LGBT Rights

Digital Fallout of June Prides: Unveiling Violations of Digital Rights

In June, Pride Parades were held, among others, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Croatia, highlighting the struggle for LGBT rights in these countries.

In Depopulated Srebrenica, Shuttered Shops and Open-Hearted People

Driven by curiosity, we walked into the building the music was coming from, which is called The House of Good Tones. Hilda Djozic, office manager of the House, tells us later on that what we heard was a rehearsal by one of the youngest bands they have, and that the drummer was a seven-year-old girl.

Descendants of Bosnian and Armenian Migrants Keep Ancient Ways Alive in Albania

Kapidani is cataloguing any documents that he can find about his ancestors. "We've collected documents and testimonies from the elders, aiming to reconstruct their trip by land and sea," Kapidani told BIRN.

Back in the 1870s, Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the most culturally diverse parts of the Balkans, was mired in a multisided conflict.

In Montenegro, Memories of Pain and Generosity on the Refugee Road

Dejan, then 20, had been nearing the end of his military service in Kosovo, then a southern province of Serbia, when NATO launched air strikes to halt a brutal Serbian counter-insurgency war. At the time, Serbia and Montenegro were all that was left of Yugoslavia, still joined together after the other four republics - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia - had seceded.

Venice Commission, OSCE, Criticise Bosnian Serbs ‘Foreign Agents’ Bill

The Venice Commission, the Council of Europe's constitutional law experts, and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, ODIHR, have warned that the new draft law in Bosnia's Republika Srpska entity on the "Special Registry and Publicity of the Work of Non-Profit Organisation", dubbed the "foreign agents law", "contains serious deficiencies".

Bosnia Data Contradicts Croatian Claim about Migrant, Refugee ‘Readmissions’

According to the Service's figures, 3,433 people have been 'readmitted' since 2017, the year that migrants and refugees mainly from the Middle East, Asia and Africa began crossing Bosnia in any great numbers. That does not include the thousands returned illegally, so-called 'pushbacks' across the border that fly in the face of the internationally-guaranteed right to seek asylum.

Migrants’ Mass Expulsions from Croatia Raise Legal Doubts

Besides such abuses, experts also say the procedure could be illegal. "There are some doubts over the legality of what we are seeing happening between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of European law," Italian jurist and migration expert Gianfranco Schiavone told BIRN.

Not allowed to seek asylum

‘Donating’ a Child in 20th Century Albania

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Brothers Rifat and Asim, both traders, lived in the Albanian coastal city of Durres in the first half of the last century, Asim born in 1900, and Rifat in 1910.

The older brother married a woman called Hatixhe and they were blessed with 15 children, of which 10 survived into adulthood. The last was born in 1946.

Deportations of Migrants From Croatia Alarm Bosnian Cantonal PM

The Prime Minister of Una Sana Canton, one of ten cantons in Bosnia's Federation entity, Mustafa Ruznic, has sent an open letter to Bosnia's state security and foreign ministers, as well as to the head of the Foreigners Affairs Service, SPS, demanding an explanation for the increased number of migrants and refugees reportedly returned from Croatia to Bosnia based on a bilateral readmission agre

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