CURRENT EXAMPLES OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
CURRENT EXAMPLES OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

Summary/Abstract: The legislative framework for the systematic fight against domestic violence and violence against women has been improved following the adoption of the new Law on Combating Domestic Violence in the Federation of BiH 2013. Article 35 of the Law posits that the Federation of BiH and the cantons will fund safe houses in a 70-30 split (70% of the expenses will be covered by the Federation of BiH and 30% by the cantons). The Law imposes a clear obligation to pass sub-legislation which would regulate the establishment, work and financing of the safe houses, and which would set standards for accreditation of safe houses and their eligibility for state support. Unfortunately, this obligation has not been met in the last three years and so the work of the six existing safe houses has been left to self-regulation. The existing safe houses have independently conducted an assessment of the annual costs of running a safe house. It is estimated that the work and the programs of one safe house with the capacity of 25 places costs a minimum of 240,000 KM a year. On the other hand the support for the safe houses on entity level, from the Federation of BiH Government, from 2008 until now has never surpassed 200,000 KM. Therefore, one can conclude that the allocated 200,000 KM can only cover the costs of one safe house in the Federation of BiH, and that if this is split between the six safe houses each can only get an amount that covers between 10-15% of each safe house’s total expenses. The Government of the Federation BIH has therefore been in breach of the law for years and has failed to meet its obligation to finance 70% of the safe house expenses.

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