At the 20th regular session held yesterday, the representatives of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina did not adopt the agenda, which included, among other items, the Proposal for the Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code of FBiH. As a result, the adoption of femicide as a separate criminal offense in the Criminal Code of FBiH has also been postponed.

Although the campaign to introduce femicide as a distinct criminal offense in the Criminal Code of FBiH has been ongoing for months and is close to achieving a systemic solution, this decision by the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament has caused us to miss yet another opportunity to provide women in the Federation of BiH with better legal protection from gender-based violence.

“We are disappointed and outraged by the outcome of yesterday's session, namely the failure to adopt the agenda of the House of Representatives, because it sends a clear message that femicide is not a priority or a concern for the representatives of this legislative body. Instead, political maneuvering has taken precedence — something we cannot accept or understand. I would like to emphasize that women have been killed for years in extremely brutal and cruel ways, and our unofficial statistics show that an average of 11 women are murdered each year, which further highlights the scale and severity of this issue. Therefore, such treatment by the legislative body towards the Proposal for Amendments to the Criminal Code of FBiH is simply unacceptable,” the statement read.

The organization Glas žene Bihać will continue to monitor the work of the House of Representatives, whose leadership announced that the Proposal for Amendments to the Criminal Code of FBiH will be included again on the agenda of the next session, scheduled for the second half of May.

“We call on the representatives in the House of Representatives to act reasonably and in the interest of all citizens of the Federation. Any further delay in the adoption of the Proposal for Amendments to the Criminal Code of FBiH is truly unacceptable, as it is urgently necessary to ensure systemic protection for women against violence. For this reason, if the delay continues, we will be forced to call citizens to protest in the capital of the Federation of BiH,” concluded Neira Raković.