On April 4 of this year, the Municipal Court in Sarajevo issued a first-instance verdict which for the first time in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) confirmed discrimination against LGBTI persons.
This was highlighted on Tuesday, April 26, at the press conference of the Sarajevo Open Center, an independent feminist civil society organization that campaigns for gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people and women's rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The verdict refers to a message sent on her Facebook profile on April 1, 2019 by Samra Ćosović Hajdarević, then a representative in the Sarajevo Canton Assembly, one of the ten cantons in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Ćosović Hajdarević then, reacting to the announcement of the organizers of the First Bosnia and Herzegovina Pride Parade, published a status in which she called for discrimination against LGBTIQ people.
"Everyone has the right to live the life they want, we also have the right to choose who we want to live with. I want people like this to isolate themselves and stay as far away from our children and society as possible. Let them go somewhere else and make a city, a country for themselves , laws and their rights that no one will dispute. But not here!", wrote the representative in the KS Assembly at the time.
Lejla Huremović, member of the BiH Organizational Committee. of the pride parade said that this verdict is important because it has been proven that the spread of hate speech and calls for violence against LGBTIQ+ people on social networks can lead to physical violence.
"This is a confirmation that hate speech and calls to violence on social networks, especially public figures and politicians, are not permissible and can be sanctioned," she pointed out.
Huremović said that the verdict should be a warning that every hate speech and call to violence will be reported, and that similar verdicts will be expected in the future.
Dženana Hadžiomerović, a lawyer who represented the Sarajevo Open Center, emphasized that the verdict is of the first instance, and that it is not final or legally binding.
She pointed to the fact that for the first time a court in Bosnia and Herzegovina established the existence of discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender characteristics.
"Since 2009, when sexual orientation and gender identity were introduced as prohibited grounds through the mentioned Law (BiH Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, op.a.), it took almost 13 years until the first verdict. Also, freedom of speech is not absolute and people must be aware of the messages and the consequences of such messages that they broadcast to the public," Hadžiomerović said.
She added that criticizing or making negative comments towards LGBTI people and the Pride Parade can fall under freedom of speech, but that she considers public calls for the isolation and removal of certain people from society because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender characteristics to be clear hate speech.
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