4.2 Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina
Networks have trained fellow officers on gender mainstreaming
in their daily duties. The BiH NWPO has continued with
training sessions that began in 2018, covering eight additional
cantonal MoI’s in 2019, with some 140 women police officers
as participants. Each event has demonstrated that becoming
more familiar with gender-based discrimination has led
participants to display a greater openness and willingness in
terms of sharing experiences and ideas.
In pursuing its aim to strengthen the structure of both
Networks and facilitate internal communication, the Mission
helped to organize both annual assemblies to elect new
members, revise previous activities and plan future steps.
In addition, the Mission organized a training on addressing
hate crimes for the BiH NWPO. The BiH NWPO assembly
meeting and training took place on Mt. Jahorina, while the RS
NWPO met in Teslic. For the RS NWPO, in addition to regular
agenda items, the assembly meeting focused on increasing
the visibility of the Network and possibly introducing a
mentoring scheme on gender equality mainstreaming, not
only among the members, but also among other colleagues.
The participants also expressed interest in becoming more
involved in the work of their Network and adopted all the
proposed decisions unanimously.
Gender-Based Violence
On 19 and 20 June, in co-operation with the Federation of BiH
(FBiH) Centre for Education of Judges and Prosecutors and RS
Centre for Education of Judges, the entity and cantonal MoI,
the Mission organized two trainings on Mt. Jahorina, which
tackled gender-based violence. The training sessions targeted
entity police, prosecutors, judges, and civil society that were
engaged in domestic violence. The focus of the training
sessions was on the existing legal framework on protection
from domestic violence, the role of the institutions, the
efficient investigation and prosecution, and the importance
of a co-ordinated approach. On the sides of both events, the
Mission organized a joint session for colleagues from both
entities and Brčko District to discuss institutional responses
to cases of domestic violence, survivor-centred approaches
and experiences in the implementation of the legislation on
protection from domestic violence.
On 29 November, in co-operation with the Education Section
of the Sarajevo Canton MoI, the Mission organized a training
workshop in Sarajevo on processing domestic violence cases for
30 police officers and assistant commanders from seven police
stations. The activity was based on a previous MoI assessment,
which had observed that the response of the law enforcement
agencies to domestic violence in their areas of responsibility
had significantly deteriorated. The training was also an
opportunity to co-ordinate the procedural issues relating to
response between different police stations in the Canton.
50
On 10 and 11 December, the Mission organized a training
seminar in Sarajevo on sexual violence for 30 women officers
from State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA),
Federal Police Administration and all ten cantonal MoI’s.
As most survivors of rape and sexual assault are women
and considering that, procedurally speaking, women police
officers are expected to provide support to the survivor, the
Mission engaged a psychologist and senior police inspector
as trainers, which contributed to strengthening the skills of
women police officers in implementing a ‘survivor-oriented’
approach.
Hate Crime
On 28 March, the Mission organized a workshop in Zenica
on hate crimes and bias-motivated incidents for law
enforcement officers and prosecutors from the Zenica-Doboj
Canton. On 25 June, a similar workshop was organized for
prosecutors in Travnik. In total, 36 participants increased
their understanding of the concepts, legal frameworks, and
responses to bias-motivated incidents and hate crimes.
On 13 June and 2 October, the Mission organized two hate
crime workshops at Mt. Jahorina for 57 members of the
BiH and RS NWPO. Both events included a presentation of
the concept of hate crime, the findings from the Mission’s
monitoring programme, and hate crime legal framework.
Participants were also provided with practical skills required
through a case study analysis exercise.
From 17 to 18 June and 10 to 11 September, in co-operation
with entity judicial and prosecutorial training centres, the
Mission organized two workshops in at Mt. Jahorina for 24
police and prosecutorial spokespersons on communicating
information on hate crimes to the media and the public.
The workshops focused on the concept of hate crime, legal
framework, the Mission’s monitoring findings, and a case
study on an alleged hate crime through which the principles
of effective media communications were presented.
Throughout 2019, in co-operation with the police and other
relevant stakeholders, the Mission organized presentations
across the country at local events on combating hate crime
and bias, which included the Mission’s findings on the
current situation, the legal framework and importance of
investigation and prosecution. On 30 August, the Mission
organized a presentation for 58 participants at the 6th Brčko
District BiH Police Summer School for Youth in Brčko, and
on 5 December at the end-of-year meeting in Prijedor for
27 participants, including representatives from the police,
security forum, city administration, and local coalition
against hate.
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