News in English     | 28.05.2019. 20:53 |

In BiH, 49.4 percent of population subjected to some form of social exclusion

FENA Hana Imamović

SARAJEVO, May 28 (FENA) - According to the assessment of the index of general social exclusion in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 49.4 percent of the population is socially excluded on some basis, which ranks BiH at third place among the countries of the region, and this index is worse only in Serbia and North Macedonia, it was highlighted today at the roundtable on the topic "Towards a European Union - Key problems of social inclusion in BiH", organized by the Foundation for Social Inclusion in BiH and the Initiative for Better and Humane Inclusion.

Participants of this meeting underlined that social inclusion and the rights of marginalized groups are at the top of the priorities of the European integration process, and BiH is far from the European standards according to the parameters of living standard, health, education, social inclusion and access to services.

Secretary General of the FBiH Association of Paraplegics Elvira Bešlija, an organization which gathers one of the vulnerable categories of society, pointed out that such projects point to the problems that this population faces and one of them is discrimination.

“We live in a country where we have no facilitated access to housing buildings, institutions, but also orthopedic aid. We are also discriminated against on various grounds, but discrimination in BiH is systemically legitimized,” says Bešlija.

Authors of the document "Towards the European Union - Key problems of social inclusion in BiH" Žarko Papić and Maida Fetahagić stressed that BiH, when it eventually receives the status of a candidate country for membership in the European Union, will have to work on these issues.

The roundtable presented the first research in this respect and in that sense, represents a preparation for the process of joining the European Union, and Papić assessed that BiH is very far from European standards, policies and practices.

Papić singled the demographic situation as the first problem in BiH, followed by poverty, and as a third problem, he singled out discrimination which, unlike in other countries, has been systematically introduced into the laws and the Constitution of BiH.

He also stated that 173,000 citizens have left BiH since 2013, but the problem is also negative natural increase, bearing in mind that in the last five years, there were 35,000 more deaths than births, and Papić emphasizes that departures from BiH, along with poverty, are the main causes of the depopulation phenomenon.

“There is no serious family and child protection in BiH. If you take the negative natural increase and the departure of the population, we get a figure of 208,000 people, which means that there is 5.8 percent less population in BiH than registered in the 2013 census,” Papić explained.

If we were to make projections for the five-year periods it would mean that there would be no population in BiH in 85 years, but, as Papić claims, no one is giving any serious thought to this issue.

He expressed concern that the European Commission would make a bureaucratic error in the BiH Progress Report focusing only on political segments, which are important but can be resolved, but that essential things like European standards in social policies will not be in the forefront.

This document was produced within the project "Building an advocacy platform for social inclusion in BiH" under the motto "Stop and Listen", supported by the European Union and UNICEF.

Watch http://fena.ba/video/3011

Download https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15cwVaIYtcOdBFSM164bnIrFJBLnANdEL?usp=sharing

(FENA) S. R.

Vezane vijesti

Shortage of medicines registered on the BiH market, but adequate substitutes are offered

Growth of foreign investments in BiH, mostly in metal processing industry, tourism and mining

Protocol on the harmonization of court practice in BiH signed in Sarajevo

Promo

M:tel: Savršena kombinacija – Huawei telefon i pametni sat s popustom

M:tel: Stiglo nam je Proljeće!

Predstava 'Kako sam se nadala dobro se nisam udala' u BKC Sarajevo