ANNUAL REPORT ON THE RESULTS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE INSTITUTION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA In the area of social rights, the Ombudsman identifies challenges related to the functioning of social welfare centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is why it issued its Special Report on the Situation and Challenges Facing Social Welfare Centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 2019, which included recommendations addressed to the competent authorities for implementation, and this report was presented to the public. In 2019, the Department for Monitoring the Exercise of the Rights of Persons Deprived from Liberty received a total of 129 complaints. As in previous years, the complaints received by this Department in the greatest part concerned the dissatisfaction with the quality of health services in the prison establishments, to the use of benefits out of the establishment, the right to transfer to another institution (in the same entity or in the other entity), conditional release, non-satisfactory conditions of accommodation and treatment, some form of abuse, or complaints about inappropriate behavior of the prison staff or violence from other prisoners, problems with visits of family members, status issues etc. Ombudspersons repeatedly express their concerns regarding a problem present in the criminal sanctions execution system. This is a very complex issue since the mandate for criminal sanctions execution is divided between the state level, entity level and the level of Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Such a system including four legislative acts (in addition to several dozen of bylaws) which sometimes results in the existence of different legal norms governing the same area in different ways, which leads to unequal treatment of the convicted persons, depending on the prison establishment, or the entity in which they serve their sentence. National Preventive Mechanism/Preventive Mechanism has not been established yet irrespective of commitments assumed by Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Optional Protocol 12 to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). However, through the Project of Capacity Building of the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman of Bosnia and Herzegovina to carry out the mandate of the torture preventive mechanism in Bosnia and Herzegovina, adequate training on the mandate and functioning of the NPM/PM delivered 13, thus creating the preconditions for the Institution to assume the role of this mechanism. As part of this project, Ombudspersons visited all larger police stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina to determine the condition of detention facilities, after which they made 14 their Special report on the conditions in the detention facilities in police administration units in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which included recommendations addressed to the competent authorities, and this report was presented to the public. In 2019 a total of 198 complaints were registered with the Department for the Protection of the Rights of the Child. The Ombudsman was processing the individual complaints received by this Department, as well as cases opened ex officio, in which children were victims of domestic violence and victims of peer violence. In 2019, Ombudspersons produced a Special Report on the Prohibition of the Physical Punishment of Children in Bosnia and Herzegovina 15 which included 12 Ratified on 24 October 2008 The Project was implemented in cooperation with the Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria 14 In April 2019 15 https://www.ombudsmen.gov.ba/Download.aspx?id=286&lang=BS 13 11