Back Looking back to achievements on promoting equality and diversity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and ahead for new engagements with action partners

Looking back to achievements on promoting equality and diversity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and ahead for new engagements with action partners

The action "Promotion of diversity and equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina" organised its 4th Steering Committee meeting on 16 September 2021.

Loreta Vioiu, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Sarajevo, thanked the Steering Committee members for their support and commitment, and emphasised the importance of this action for the Council of Europe, which is also part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as of the larger partnership between the EU/COE as per the Horizontal Facility II program. Vioiu also mentioned the general progress of Bosnia and Herzegovina when it comes to the rights of LGBTI people, and the successfully organised Bosnian-Herzegovinian (BiH) Pride March and recognition of its importance and need of support, notably by the Government of Sarajevo Canton, among others.

Saliha Đuderija, Assistant Minister from the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina and co-chair of the action, praised the progress of the action and expressed satisfaction for being part of this process. She noted that through the activities, designed within the action plan for BiH, priorities that are important in todays and the future process of the European integration are followed. She also emphasised that this action has a certain amount of flexibility and the possibility that when certain problems in the implementation of the set activities and goals are identified, adequate solutions can be found.

Stefano Valenti, Head of the No Hate Speech and Co-operation Unit of the Council of Europe, highlighted that mostly because of the flexibility, the action managed to go through a difficult COVID period and thanked all the representatives at different levels of government as well as the EU Delegation. He pointed out that action implementation is challenging compared to many others, not only because most topics are still sensitive for processing in BiH, but also because it includes policy components at the state level.

Ajša Adrović Bešlagić, Programme Manager, EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina thanked all those who contributed and who still contribute to the implementation of this action, and especially the project team for their dedication, professionalism and work, and for ensuring that the action is implemented in a timely manner and achieving the expected quality. She also pointed out that some of the results of the action are also the strengthening institutional co-operation among relevant actors and the improvement of the capacity of government bodies and civil society organisations.

The members of the Steering Committee were informed about past and future activities and discussed the current activities of this action, including the activities of the regional sister action, “Promotion of diversity and equality in the Western Balkans”.

The action “Promotion of diversity and equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina” is a part of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”, implemented by the Council of Europe.

Sarajevo 20 September 2021
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