ANNUAL REPORT ON THE RESULTS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE INSTITUTION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Furthermore, Article 35v. Paragraph 2, prescribes that developmental impairment/illness constitutes impaired vision, hearing, voice-voice communication, physical impairment and/or chronic illness, intellectual impairment, psychiatric disorder and/or illness or other impairment or illness that gives rise to difficulties in psychological and sensorimotor development and functioning in activities of daily living that occurred in the period up to the age of 18 years. Adoption of the provision defined in this way leads to the exclusion of persons with disabilities whose disability did not arise in the developmental period, i.e. until the age of 18 years. The Ombudsman's Commentary on said Draft outlines the provisions of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the basic principles underlying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the obligation of States Parties to ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental rights, freedom for persons with disabilities without discrimination on the basis of disability. The relevant provision of the Draft Law was not made in the light of the Recommendation of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the Concluding Considerations on the Initial Report of Bosnia and Herzegovina 425, which recommended that the term disability should be defined without discrimination on the basis of the cause of the disability. An inspection of the Proposal for the Law on Amendments to the Law on Social Protection of the Republika Srpska of September 2019 established that the aforementioned objections were not accepted, on the grounds that the adoption of the Institution's objections would increase the allocation of funds from the Republika Srpska budget. The Ombudsmen repeatedly pointed to problems in practice that arose after the Amendments to the Law on Basic Social Protection, Protection of Civilian Victims of War and Family with Children of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina 426 adopted in 2009 427. Article 3 of the aforementioned Amendments puts persons with disabilities into two groups, namely: group I with a disability in percentage of 100% and group II with disability in percentage of 90%, depending on which of the two groups mentioned above, persons with disabilities exercise their rights under the aforementioned Law. So, by adopting the amendments, instead of the previous six groups, only two groups were introduced, and thus all beneficiaries with a disability percentage of less than 90% were excluded from the rights, with the exception of civilian victims of war who continued to exercise their rights and war invalids, who have been recognized under the Law on the Rights of Defenders and Members of Their Families of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina 428. On the other hand, members of the category of war invalids are classified in group I to X and exercise their rights in all groups. The monthly amount of the personal disability allowance of Group I to X disabled persons is determined as a percentage of a certain base. 425 Report adopted at the seventeenth session of the Committee (20 March-12 April 2017). Special Report on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, November 2010, available at: https://www.ombudsmen.gov.ba/documents/obmudsmen_doc2013020406303506bos.pdf Annual Report on the Results of the Activities of the Human Rights Ombudsman of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2011, available at: https://www.ombudsmen.gov.ba/documents/obmudsmen_doc2013012811550655bos.pdf Special Report on the State of the Rights of Persons with Intellectual and Mental Disabilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2018, available at: https://www.ombudsmen.gov.ba/documents/obmudsmen_doc2018051809032286bos.pdf 427 FBiH Official Gazette, No. 14/2009. 428 FBiH Official Gazette no. 33/2004, 56/2005, 70/2007, 9/2010 and 90/2017. 426 103