Country reportpresentation - Bosnia andHerzegovina

Dijana Tepsic
JICA Training - Japan
2009.

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Gender concept in Bosnia andHerzegovina
Important role of NGO-s, especially after thewar (1995)
Gender institutional mechanisms are
established on the state and entity level(2001)
Law on Gender Equality is established in 2003
Gender Action Plan is adopted 2006-2010
National action plans on prevention andcombating domestic violence are adopted onentity and state level
Gender institutional mechanisms are workingin cooperation with all the government
institutions, local and international NGO-s andinternational organizations.
2Gender Center – Center for Gender equality ofRepublic of Srpska Government (entity level)
Founded by the Decision of the Government ofRepublic of Srpska in December 2001.
Establishment of such body at the entity level was
one of conditions for Bosnia and Herzegovina’sadmission to Council of Europe. Mandate of Gendercenter of RS is to promote and monitor women’s
position and implementation of their guaranteed
rights.The goal of founding is establishment andstrengthening of institutional mechanisms forgender equality, implementation of gender equality
in all aspects of social life in Republic of Srpska
through laws, policies, strategies and programs, incooperation with domestic and international
institutions and organizations, according todomestic laws and international conventions and3agreements ratified by our country.

My role in Gender Center RS
Public relation officer
Job description:- Public relation, coordination, education and cooperation
with other institutional mechanisms for gender equality,
media, NGO’s, public, civil sector, other governmental
institutions and international partners.
- Following and promoting the implementation of the
Gender equality Law, conducting analyses and preparing
initiatives, programs, policies, reports, researches,newsletters.
- Promo materials for campaigns and actions.
- Articles, stories for media and doing the press clipping
every day from print media.
- Preparing and updating web site.
- Generally speaking, promotion of Gender center ofRepublic of Srpska Government, including all activities,
concept of gender equality, including good communication
with all partners, institutions, media, public.
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Issues and challenges of gender and gendermainstreaming in our country
Legal regulation exists,
Laws are not enforced in a satisfactory way,
Capacity and material functioning of Gender institutional
mechanisms needs to be strengthened, low budget...
Further education and raising the awerness of state
actors, government officers and general public,
Traditional values and stereotypes are an obstacle for
introduction of gender concept in all spheres of life, thatneeds to be tackled down, and so far the society ofBosnia and Herzegovina has not affirmed itself as asociety ready for a change.
Current priorities: issues of domestic violence, violenceagainst women and women’s participation in politicaland public life, improving the position of women in ruralarea, employment, work and access to all types ofresources, gender mainstreaming in education, gender
5budgeting.

Action Plan, campaign and strategy to combat
domestic violence in RS 2008/2009
Campaign “Family without violence” was part of theAction plan in combating family violence in Republic ofSrpska. Action plan in combating domestic violence in
Republic of Srpska was adopted by the Government ofRepublic of Srpska in July 2007. and it wasimplemented in 2008. Results are:- Victims of violence are in centre of attention andprotection- Domestic violence must be recognized as a big society
problem and as a violation of human rights, and every
institution and individual must combat that problem- Society have obligation to give this problem priority andto show political will and assure recourses ,multidisciplinary and coordinative approach forcombating domestic violence
6Gender center – Center for gender equality in Republic of
Srpska as a governmental service for gender equality gave
the initiative for adopting this plan and was coordinator ofthis Action plan,
Partners: Ministry of Law of Republic of Srpska, Ministry ofInternal Affairs of Republic of Srpska, Ministry of Health andSocial Care of Republic of Srpska, Ministry of Family, Youthand Sport of Republic of Srpska and Ministry of Education andCulture of Republic of Srpska.
Adoption of the Action plan was direct contribution ofGovernment of Republic of Srpska as a state through theinternational obligations, and it represents first document likethis in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Action plan is made by using the guidelines of international
documents made by the international organizations (UnitedNations, Council of Europe, European Union etc.).
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Results of the Action plan and the campaign“Family without violence”
Better social action against domestic violence andviolence against women. Government of Republic of
Srpska declare 2008 and 2009. as years of
combating domestic violence in Republic of Srpska.
Integration of all of the subjects of protection
against domestic violence to work coordinately witha humane and compassionate approach for thevictim of violence.
Action plans, for the first time, schedule theassignment of financial resources in order toproperly and fully implement measures that will
prevent the cases of violence, that will give support
for the victim and that will enable the treatment of
the perpetrator of violence.
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Activities of Gender centerof Republic of Srpska on
raising the awerness ofgovernment officers,institutions, organizations,subjects of the victim
protection (healthisntitutions, justice, police,social care centers,schools)
9A National Campaign “Family withoutviolence” has been very successful, visible
and effective on all levels (media, culture,youth, schools)
We created promo materials for different
target groups:Billboards, Posters, City
lights, Pamflets, Stickers, T-shirts, Pencils,
Brochures ,Video, Audio jingle, CD with asong for the campaign. Promo materials
were distributed in all the relevant
institutions and organizations in Republicof Srpska, NGO’s, schools, health andsocial care centers and media.
10We also translated, printed and distributed
Publication of Council of Europe “Theprotection of women against violence” Recommendation No. R (2002) 5 of theCommittee of Ministers and Explanatory
Memorandum”.

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Added value for the campaign “Familywithout violence”
Activities planned for the campaign were enlarge andresults were evidently better and more visible andeffective with the support of other people that wanted to
be included in the campaign, so they gave their personal
contribution to the campaign. Musicians from Republicof Srpska famous Hip - Hop, R&B group made a song
“Nisam sama” (“I’m not alone”)
The song is about domestic violence/violence against
women, and it brings strong emotion and tells about
women, victims of violence, it encourages women to bestrong, to choose better life and to report violence.
Song was used for the purpose of the campaign, it was
supported by the media, articles in the press media werewritten about this song, campaign, it was presented onradio charts, it was a huge success a great contribution
to the campaign and it still is very recognized and very
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well known.

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Pupils and youth were also included in thecampaign through contribution of their work
(paintings and literal essays). Subject of theirwork was “Family without violence”, and it was
their creative contribution to the campaign. We
organized an open competition for all primaryand secondary schools in Republic of Srpska, andafter that we organized event with presenting
the awards for pupils, youth with best “Familywithout violence” work (paintings and literalessays).
Here are some of the scanned work of awarded
pupils:15

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Media (Radio,Television, printed media,web pages) supported whole campaign withgiving their space for purpose of the campaign.
They helped us in raising the awareness about
the domestic violence and violence against
women, and they presented it in the right way
and showed it as a huge society problem. Also,
we made a video for the song “Nisam sama” (I’m
not alone). Video was made from professional
photos of famous photographer Aleksandar
Arsenovic who was creator of the photo edition“Violence against women” and who wanted togive his contribution with the mentioned
musicians and he gave his photos for free for thepurpose of the video and the campaign.
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Useful knowledge and skills gained
through this JICA seminar
Experience and knowledge collectedfrom other countries/participations
Experience, knowledge, skills, datafrom experts, professors, activists,reaserchers in Japan,
Provided materials, brosuhures,
pamphlets with data of othercountries and Japan,
Ideas from brainstorming at various
workshops during this seminar.

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My Action plan on gender mainstreaming in mycountry
National strategy to combat domestic violence2009 – 2013
Objective:
Action plan on prevention and combating domestic
violence is adopted and implemted by the goverment,
so we already have a tool and main document for
further work,
Some activities are implemented through the Action
plan but because of the low budget and economic
crises we need to improve that
National campaign on raising the awerness on domesticviolence is implemented
Now we have a good start point to work more on thishuge society problem such as domestic violence22Activites
Strenghten the capacities,
Improve the system of the protection,
Establishment of one data base on
domestic violence,
Creating of unique manual for
subjects of the protection (healthistitutions, social care centers,schools, justice, police).
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Expected outcome
Succesful interdisciplinary approachto prevention and combat domestic
violence,
Better system of the protection ofvictims of domestic violence,
Active and succesful work of subjectsof the protection24• Promotionof gender equality, raising theawareness on gender equality, women’s rights andgender mainstreaming generally is my personal
and professional mission.
• My message to others: Be tolerant, be open
minded, celebrate diversity, don’t stereotype others,
be optimistic, be active, think GENDER.

Thank you
Dijana Tepsic
gender.pr@blic.net
Gender Center RS 25