Analysis of Anti-Discrimination Case Law in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Period 2018-2021

The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Mission) is issuing this report to present its findings based on an analysis of anti-discrimination jurisprudence in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The paper covers the period from mid-2018 to mid-2021. This report is a continuation of the Mission’s monitoring of the work of the judiciary regarding equality and non-discrimination since the adoption of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination (LPD) in 2009. With this report, the Mission identifies significant new trends in how the BiH legal community is utilizing the LPD before courts and displays the power the LPD can have when properly utilized. The present analysis focuses on the responses of courts in the context of discrimination proceedings initiated under the LPD. It is not intended to serve as an overview of discrimination trends and issues in BiH and does not examine how other BiH institutions respond to discrimination. The report tracks and maps the relevant trends, but also highlights some of the more prominent issues in the application of substantive aspects of the LPD, identifying weaknesses and inconsistencies in case law while taking into account the totality of judicial output on these cases.