At the sitting of 29 April, the Gender Equality Committee hosted a delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina Gender Equality Commission. They discussed the prospectives for establishing cooperation between working bodies and exchanging experiences on gender equality issues and improvement of the position of women in the two countries. They emphasised the need to hold thematic sittings on issues of common interest from this sphere.

At the beginning of the meeting, the parliamentarians from Bosnia and Herzegovina were greeted by Committee Chairperson Dr Gordana Paunovic-Milosavljevic, and then Deputy Chairperson Bojana Stanojevic briefed the guests on the Gender Equality Committee’s competencies and work. She stressed that a Gender Equality Law was adopted at the end of 2009 and emphasised the importance of establishing the appropriate mechanisms for its implementation and promotion, as well as the preparation of by-laws.

The Chairman of the Bosnia and Herzegovina PA’s Gender Equality Commission Vinko Zoric said that the 2003 Gender Equality Law was updated in 2009 when a provision on higher representation of women in state institutions was introduced. However, in practice the situation is still unsatisfactory, and the representation of women in public posts is low. The electoral law has not been modified in this sense either, Zoric said.

The members of the Gender Equality Committee stressed that the problems as regards the achievement of gender equality in the two states are extremely similar. There are no mechanisms for the implementation of the adopted laws and regulations from the sphere of gender equality and improvement of the position of women which is why the results of their implementation are unsatisfactory. They deemed that the educational system and the media play a key role in the promotion of these laws and alteration of practice.