Outcome Report >> Bosnia & Herzegovina, Comment, 34th Session, November 2019

Action Canada for Population and Development welcomed the many recommendations urging the Government to harmonize legislation and regulations across jurisdictions and to ensure consistent alignment with international human rights instruments, particularly the Istanbul Convention. The discrepancies in law and policy create serious human rights protection gaps for women, young people and persons subjected to intersecting forms of discrimination. These protection gaps include unequal access to safe abortion, social security systems for pregnancy and parenthood, protection from domestic and gender-based violence, discrimination on the basis of sexuality and gender and sexual and reproductive health services, among others. It called on the Government to fulfill its obligations under international human rights law to all people across its different jurisdictions and ensure that no one is denied their sexual and reproductive rights because of where they live. A stark example of this lies in the discriminatory provision of abortion and contraceptive services, although technically legal, different healthcare funds regulate prices for abortions, rendering such services inaccessible to many women living in poverty, especially women belonging to minority communities such as Roma women, women with disabilities and women returnees. [Para 902]