National Minority Councils
Since 2006, the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina established the Council of National Minorities, as a special advisory body to give opinions, advice and proposals to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH on all matters concerning the law, position and interests of national minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The BiH National Minority Council is composed of 17 representatives of national minorities, one representative on behalf of each ethnic minority. [2]
The National Minority Council of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity was established in March 2016.
The National Minority Council of the Republika Srpska entity was established in 2005.
The National Minority Council of Sarajevo Canton was established in 2012, with extended powers of legislative initiative.
The National Minority Council of the Brcko District was established in May 2022, [4] [5] on the basis of the new district law on national minorities adopted in October 2020 [6]
Education in minority languages
Italian and Ukrainian are taught in one and four schools respectively in the town of Prnjavor (15 and 24 pupils in total in 2015). [2]
German, Russian, and Italian are taught as foreign languages in several high schools throughout the country. [2]
Associations and embassies also organise several elective courses of minority languages as foreign languages. [2]
Several newsletters and bulletins are published periodically in minority languages, including four in Slovene, and one each in Hungarian (Új dobos), [7] Macedonian (Vinozito), Italian (Stella d'Italia) and Czech (Banjalucki Krajani) [2]
Bosnia and Herzegovina, abbreviated BiH or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. The capital and largest city is Sarajevo. Bosnia and Herzegovina borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to the north and southwest. It is not entirely landlocked; in the south it has a narrow coast on the Adriatic Sea within the Mediterranean, which is about 20 kilometres long and surrounds the town of Neum. Bosnia, which is the inland region of the country, has a moderate continental climate with hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In the central and eastern regions of the country, the geography is mountainous, in the northwest it is moderately hilly, and in the northeast it is predominantly flat. Herzegovina, which is the smaller, southern region of the country, has a Mediterranean climate and is mostly mountainous.
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
The Politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, whereby executive power is exercised by the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Legislative power is vested in both the Council of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Members of the Parliamentary Assembly are chosen according to a proportional representation system.
Republika Srpska is one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in the north and east of the country. Its largest city and administrative centre is Banja Luka, lying on the Vrbas river.
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the two entities within the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Republika Srpska. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of 10 autonomous cantons with their own governments and legislatures.
The Posavina Canton is one of ten cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the smallest canton with an area of only 330.85 km2 (128 sq mi). The canton is an exclave of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, being bordered by Republika Srpska and Brčko District to the south and the river Sava and Croatia to the north. Its capital is Orašje and the largest town is Odžak.
There is currently no official flag for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The federation is part of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The federation adopted its own flag in 1996, but the flag and associated coat of arms were deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2007. The federation has not yet adopted a new flag, anthem or coat of arms; instead the symbols of the central state are used for official purposes as a provisional solution.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples.
Brčko is a city and the administrative seat of Brčko District, in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies on the banks of Sava river across from Croatia. As of 2013, it has a population 39,893 inhabitants.
Brčko District officially the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is the self-governing administrative unit in north-eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Under the "Law on Territorial Organization and Local Self-Government" adopted in 1994, Republika Srpska was divided into 80 municipalities. After the conclusion of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the law was amended in 1996 to reflect the changes to the entity's borders and now provides for the division of Republika Srpska into 64 municipalities.
The Inter-Entity Boundary Line, commonly abbreviated IEBL, is the administrative line that subdivides Bosnia and Herzegovina into two entities, Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The total length of the Inter-Entity Boundary Line is 1,080 km.
The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina was amended once, in 2009, to include the outcome of the Brčko District final award. Several constitutional reforms were attempted between 2006 and 2014, to ensure it compliance with the case law of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina and following cases regarding ethnic- and residence-based discrimination in passive electoral rights for the Presidency and House of Peoples. None of these attempts have been successful so far, notwithstanding EU involvement and conditionality.
The Seal of Republika Srpska with the description: the flag of Republika Srpska and the Cyrillic letters "РС" ("RS"), the red-blue-white tricolor are in the center of the seal, twisted with the golden Oak leaves, a traditional pre-Christian symbol sacred to most Slavs. On the edge of the seal there is an inscription Republika Srpska. The open crown of Kotromanić is shown in the bottom of the seal and the seal itself is topped with a heraldic royal crown.
The ministry of interior of Bosnia and Herzegovina had a few special forces that existed even before the war in Bosnia in 1992.
The Romani people in Bosnia and Herzegovina are the largest of the 17 national minorities in the country, although—due to the stigma attached to the label—this is often not reflected in statistics and censuses.
Croat federal unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or Croat entity, also informally known as the third entity, is a proposed administrative unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina based on territorial federalism and ethnic self-determination. The proposal has been invoked by several political scientists, politicians and political parties, including the Croat National Assembly. So far it has not been discussed beyond the concept level. Since the country is divided into two entities, the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-majority Federation, Croats, as one of the three equal constitutive nations, have proposed creating a symmetrical Croat-majority territorial unit. Political advocates for such proposal argue it would ensure Croat equality and prevent electoral gerrymandering, simplify the political gridlock while dismantle overburdening administration. Opponents argue it would further divide the country on ethnic grounds thus breaching the constitutional principles, put non-Croats in a subordinate position, and lead to separatism.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Bosnia and Herzegovina is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus was confirmed to have reached Bosnia and Herzegovina on 5 March 2020, when a patient in Banja Luka, who had travelled to Italy, tested positive. Later on the same day, a second case, who was the son of the first case, was reported. On 21 March, the first death in the country from COVID-19 was announced in a hospital in Bihać. The patient was an elderly woman who had been hospitalized two days before.
The 2020 Bosnian municipal elections were held in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 15 November 2020 to elect mayors and assemblies in 143 municipalities. Originally scheduled for 4 October, they were postponed due to a lack of funds.
