Bosnia and Herzegovina

19.12.2004 Several days ago, the Coalition for Protection of Vrbas River held a press conference at the International Press Centre in Banja Luka. At the press conference, they discussed the harmful influence of the construction of high dams on the river.

16.12.2004 Recently, journalists reporting from the BiH Parliamentary Assembly (PA) gathered and established an association called the Press Gallery of the BiH PA. Although there are already a few journalists’ associations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, these are still completely disorganized. This is why we decided to use the support of the OSCE Parliamentary Support Programme to establish the Parliamentary Press Gallery as a focal point around which political journalists from our country could gather.

16.12.2004 According to official estimates, every one in four citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina is poor. The B&H Development Strategy states the approximately 20 percent of the population in the country lives under the general poverty line. Thirty percent of the population is just above the poverty line, with possibility to fall under.

15.12.2004 The conscientious objection to the obligatory military service is one of the basic human rights and it gives the right to the individuals to choose, because of religious, moral, ethical and philosophical reasons, to serve in a civilian public service instead of serving in the military.

14.12.2004 Transparency International B&H received reports of a great number of "possible" corruption cases in higher education, on its phone-line 0800-55555.

14.12.2004 "A 19-year old girl from Romania, we will call her Arijana, trusted her neighbor to help her cross the border and find a job in Italy. After crossing the Romanian border, unaware of what was going on; she ended up in a collection center in Belgrade, full of young girls, just like herself. According to Arijana's testimony, she was photographed without clothes. The photographs were posted, along with those of the others, in a catalogue. Later she would discover that this was necessary so her owners at the time could sell her on. Two days later, she was illegally transported to Bosnia and Herzegovina, to the Arizona market nearby Brcko, where she was bought by a night-bar owner from Teslic", so explained Mara Radovanovic, president of the non-governmental organization "Lara" based in Bijeljina where one of the shelters for victims of trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina is located.

13.12.2004 At the final day of the Conference on the development of internal control mechanisms, Reinhald Danneleit, Director of the OSCE Mission Public Administration Reform Department, presented a Draft Internal Control Rulebook for municipalities.

11.12.2004 “The situation with human rights in these parts is appalling. The really sad thing is that human rights are discussed and mentioned only on December 10, the International Human Rights Day. It would be better if we talked about human right every day, for they are violated on daily basis,” said Branka Kolar, the Ombudsperson of the Republic of Srpska for OneWorld SEE.

10.12.2004 The Independent Union of Professional Journalists of B&H from Sarajevo, the Journalists Association “Apel” from Mostar and the Independent Association of Journalists of RS from Banja Luka, adopted a decision to call for a founding convention and establish a single united organization, named “BH Journalists”.

09.12.2004 On 09 December 2004 citizens around the world will celebrate the first ever International Anti-Corruption Day.