■ at the state level
■
■ The main government body in charge of youth issues is the Commission for Coordination of Youth Issues in BiH (CCYI BiH).59 This is as a permanent body within the BiH Council of Ministers that is in charge of creating state level youth policy and co-ordinating activities of key actors, such as the government, the international community and local civil society.60 The CCYI BiH has nine members:
four are representatives of the government institutions (two from the entities’ level
53 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2010 Progress Report, european commission, november 2010, http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/
pdf/key_documents/2010/package/ba_rapport_2010_en.pdf, accessed in october 2011, p. 11.
54 assessment of juvenile justice reform and achievements in Bosnia and Herzegovina. uniceF, February 2011, pp 7 55 Law on Protection and treatment of children and juveniles in criminal Proceedings
56 assessment of juvenile justice reform and achievements in Bosnia and Herzegovina. uniceF, February 2011, pp 12 57 assessment of juvenile justice reform and achievements in Bosnia and Herzegovina. uniceF, February 2011, pp 7, 13 58 responsibility for addressing youth issues is distributed between: the state level, the entity levels (Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina and republika srpska), ten cantonal levels (in the Federation), one district level (Brcko) and the Municipality levels (63 municipalities in the rs and 79 in the Federation), p.3 - reviews on youth policies and youth work in the countries of south east europe and caucasus – Bosnia and Herzegovina, council of europe, last updated in 21.03.2011, by jasmin jasarevic, accessed in oct 2011, at http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/documents/see/reviews_on_
youth_policies_see_eeca_BxH_2011.pdf
59 For more information see their website: www.mladi.gov.ba
60 coe country sheet on youth policy, 2010, accessed in sep 2011, at http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/
documents/Questionnaires/country/2008-09/Bosnia.pdf
Youth institutions
and mechanisms
within BiH and
entity governments
and two from the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH), and five come from the youth NGO sector.61 As a co-ordinating body, CCYI should attend all youth-related seminars and activities, but this is not done systematically due to lack of human resources, information and capacity: “We don’t have enough necessary information, like data on youth organisations for instance” (KII, CCYI BiH, 20 June 2011,
Sarajevo). Civil society representatives have criticised the CCYI for its passivity, poor performance and lack of necessary capacity and skills.
■
■ In the BiH parliament, there is a Joint Committee on Human Rights, Rights of Children, Youth, Immigration, Refugees, Asylum and Ethics62 that deals with issues related to the exercise of the rights of youth – in particular improving the status of youth in BiH. It is one of six joint parlimamentary committees.
■
■ at the entity level
■
■ In RS: there is a Committee for Youth issues within the RS National Assembly. The entity-level Ministry for Family, Sport and Youth has a separate Division for Youth.
In addition, there are other relevant ministries within the government that also deal with youth.63
■
■ In FBIH: there is a Commission for Youth issues within the FBiH parliament.
The entity-level Ministry of Culture and Sport has a ‘Center for Youth’64 that functions as an organisational unit65, but has limited human resources66 and a limited portfolio, as it currently focuses only on sport and culture.67
■
■ at canton level (in the Federation)
■
■ The cantons have jurisdiction on youth issues and are responsible for implementing the Youth Action Plan and assigning a budget to it.
■
■ at the municipal level
■
■ Municipalities are expected to establish a Municipal Youth Commission68 within the municipal assembly as “a necessary and permanent body within the Municipal structure”,69 consisting of representatives from various spheres, such as education, culture and sport. Their main role is to contribute to the development of municipal youth strategies and their implementation, as well as monitoring and evaluating implementation. The municipalities should allocate a budget for the implementation of the strategies. Progress in the development of youth strategies varies from municipality to municipality and implementation seems to be a particular problem in places. Each municipality should also have a Youth Officer, directly in charge of youth issues. Since 2003, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has supported the installation of youth officers and their capacity building through the “Establishment and promotion of structures in the youth sector”programme, but the process is not completed yet in all the municipalities: in some areas, these youth officers either are not identified yet or they are seen as not having the necessary capacity or commitment required for the job
61 reviews on youth policies ...2011 accessed in seo 2011, at http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/
documents/see/reviews_on_youth_policies_see_eeca_BxH_2011.pdf
62 More on: https://www.parlament.ba/sadrzaj/komisije/zajednicke_komisije/ljudska_prava/default.
aspx?id=28474&mid=1&langtag=en-us
63 Ministry of education and culture of the rs, Ministry of science and technology of the rs, and the Ministry of Health and social Welfare of the rs
64 the center for Youth works on co-operation with youth in the domain of culture and sport. it supports existing programmes in culture and sport, and finds out new forms of cultural and sport engagement of youth in the framework of overall care of society on youth – aiming to prevent and fight against alcoholism and drug addiction, [it] cares and motivates youth to stay in the country, repatriation of youth, co-operates with other federal ministries, ngos and institutions that deal with youth issues, co-operates with authorised cantonal organs and bodies, doing other businesses aiming to protect interests of youth.
translated from the Ministry website: www.fmksa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&itemid=76 65 jasarevic j, reviews on youth policies and youth work in the countries of south east europe, eastern europe & caucasus,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, eu-coe partnership, last updated 21 March 2011, http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/documents/see/reviews_on_youth_policies_see_eeca_BxH_2011.pdf, accessed in august 2011, p.17.
66 as mentioned by one of the Kii’s (ccYi BiH) it has only one employee.
67 Mazalica, s, Institutional framework for youth and youth policy options in BiH, country sheet on youth policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, last updated on 19/04/2010 http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/documents/Questionnaires/
country/2008-09/Bosnia.pdf
68 some reports refer to them as “youth committees”
69 Kacˇapor Z, Report on Youth Policy at Local Level in Bosnia and Herzegovina, december 2007, http://www.cisp.ba/publikacije/
studija_%20omladinske%20politike%20u%20BiH_engleski.pdf, accessed in august 2011, p. 27
(June workshop participants). By 2007, only 50 out of the 142 existing municipalities in BiH had youth officers.70
In terms of strategies and policies at the entity level, the RS has developed a youth strategy (“Youth policy 2010–2015”), which was adopted in November 2009 (already the second strategy since 2006) together with an action plan. The strategy has outlined the following areas: (1) employment, (2) education, (3) health, (4) social policy, (5) active participation of youth, (6) information for youth, and (7) culture and sport.71 Instead of developing an entity-level youth policy, FBiH is looking at developing a state level strategy, Coordinated Youth Policy in BiH 2011– 2015.72
There are around 250–300 active youth organisations in BiH.7374 The co-ordination of these organisations is important in order to have various initiatives that complement rather than duplicate each other’s work. Co-operation and joint advocacy between the different NGOs within and between the two entities would also contribute to greater success of these initiatives. The Law on Youth Organisation of the RS makes legal provision for a Youth Council to act as an umbrella body for youth NGOs.75 There is no such council at the state level or in the FBiH, either at federal or canton level. The EC and the FBiH Government acknowledge the need for a Youth Council and “the EC just approved a project that will support establishing this council on federation level” (KII, CCYI BiH, 20 June 2011, Sarajevo). Besides the RS Youth Council, there are only a few representative bodies, such as the Youth Initiative of Central Bosnia that represents an informal initiative of the youth organisations in the Central Bosnia Canton (in FBiH).76 “There is a great number of youth NGOs that are dealing with youth issues and youth policy issues in BiH but there is no single BiH state youth NGOs umbrella organisation that can advocate for youth policy implementation in BiH”.77
Youth NGOs rely on volunteers and few are financially self-sustainable. Most depend on international assistance or support from municipal authorities. Their activities are of even greater importance at the municipal level, as fewer opportunities exist here for young people to engage and spend their free time in a constructive way: for example in youth clubs, engaging with sports, cultural or social activities, etc. (Advocacy workshop participant, NGO representative).
70 More about youth officer see Kacˇapor’s report on youth policy, p.28, 2007.
71 the rs strategy provided by the rs national Youth council
72 commission for coordination of Youth issues in BiH, ccYi, Work Report covering 1 January - 31 December 2010, www.
mladi.gov.ba/images/upload/god.izv.o%20radu%20komisije.%20eng.%202010.doc, accessed in august 2011.
73 For more information refer to www.civilnodrustvo.ba, www.ngo.ba, www.omladina-bih.net. www.mladi.info 74 jasarevic j, Reviews on youth policies and youth work in the countries of South East Europe, Eastern Europe & Caucasus,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, eu-coe partnership, last updated 21 March 2011, http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/documents/see/reviews_on_youth_policies_see_eeca_BxH_2011.pdf, accessed in august 2011 75 jasarevic j, Reviews on youth policies and youth work in the countries of South East Europe, Eastern Europe & Caucasus,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, eu-coe partnership, last updated 21 March 2011, http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/documents/see/reviews_on_youth_policies_see_eeca_BxH_2011.pdf, accessed in august 2011 76 jasarevic j, Reviews on youth policies and youth work in the countries of South East Europe, Eastern Europe & Caucasus,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, eu-coe partnership, last updated 21 March 2011, http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/documents/see/reviews_on_youth_policies_see_eeca_BxH_2011.pdf, accessed in august 2011
77 jasarevic j, 2011, p.3.
Local youth NGOs