Samra Filipović-Hadžiabdić,dire c tor The Gender Equality Agency of Bosn ia and Her z egovin a

1. BOSNA I HERCEGOVINAMinistarstvo za ljudska prava i izbjegliceAgencija za ravnopravnost spolovaBosne i HercegovineTheGender ActionPlan of Bosnia and Herzegovina Samra Filipović-Hadžiabdić,director The Gender Equality Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina

2. Creation and adoption of the Gender Action plan of Bosnia and Herzegovina

3. Steps preceding the creation of the GAP? • The National Action in line with the Beijing Declaration, • BIH report under the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, • Recommendations by work groups for the implementation of the Gender Equality Law in Bosnia and Herzegovina, • Local and international documents

4. The goal of the Gender ActionPlan • Goal: Achieving the principle of gender equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina in all spheres of public and private life.

5. The structure of Gender ActionPlan of Bosnia and Herzegovina • Activities in 15 areas of GAP • Operational plan including all indicators and responsible institutions, • Annexes (the initial, the second and the third CEDAW reporton BiH, Recommendations of the CEDAW Committee, the Beijing Declaration, the National ActionPlan in line with the BeijingDeclaration, the Gender Equality Law of BiH, Recommendations of work groups for the implementation of Gender Equality Lawin BiH etc.).

6. The chapters of Gender ActionPlan of Bosnia and Herzegovina • The Gender ActionPlan includes the following chapters: • European integrations in the light of gender equality • Cooperation and capacity building • Macro-economic and developmental strategies • Gender-sensitive budgets • Political life and decision-making • Employment and employment market • Social inclusion • Gender-sensitive media

7. The chapters of Gender ActionPlan of Bosnia and Herzegovina • Lifelong education • Health, preventionand protection • Family violence, sexual harassment, harassment and trafficking in human beings • The role of men • Harmonizing professional and family life • Sustainable environment • Communication and information technologies

8. Structure of GAP chapters • All GAP areas share certain common structural elements including: • Harmonizing the legislation and passing the sub-legal acts, • Defining the strategies and policies, • Research, • Statistic data, • Activities (educational, awareness-raising, promotional).

9. Political life and decision-making • Goal: • Achieving equal representation of women and men in the creation of policies and the decision-making in the governing and decision-making structures on all levels of governance in BIH.

10. Political life and decision-making - activities • Harmonizing laws, draft laws and other regulations in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Gender Equality Law of BIH, as well as the international standards promoting and stimulating gender equality in the governing and decision-making structures in line with the recommendations of the UN CEDAW Committee, • Harmonizing the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Gender Equality Law of BIH in accordance with the recommendations of UN CEDAW Committee with the purpose of strengthening the measures ensuring more even representation of women in the election bodies and on the candidate lists, • Harmonizing legal acts and other regulations specifying the election and appointment to public positions as well as the application procedures with Article 15 of the Gender Equality Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina

11. Political life and decision-making - activities • Starting the initiative for drawing up the state law on political parties specifying provisions that require the political parties to ensure equal representation of women and men in their organsin line with Article 15. of the Gender Equality Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, • Developing procedures that ensure full implementation of Article 15. of Gender Equality Law of BiH, in accordance with the Resolution 1325 of the Security Council, directed toward ensuring equal representation of sexes in the policy creation and decision-making processes as well as ensuring equal representation of sexes in the most responsible diplomatic positions, in the parliamentary and other international delegations and in the teams negotiating the BIH participation in European integrations.

12. Political life and decision-making - activities • Starting the initiative directed toward having the political parties clearly define gender equality as a fundamental principle in their programs and policies and introduce transparent mechanisms of promoting and observing gender equality, in line with the 1325Resolutionof the Security Council, • Developing a strategy of increasing the participation of rural and Roma women in the decision-making organsat the local level, in accordance with Article 14 of the UN Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW), • Creating a database on the representation of sexes in the governing and decision-making structureson all levels of governance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in accordance with the recommendations of UN Committee for CEDAW and enforcing penalties forfailure to keep gender-disaggregated statistic data in accordance with Article 28. of Gender Equality Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina

13. Political life and decision-making - activities • Starting the initiative for including the representatives of the Women’s forum and the Women’s section into the Presidency, the Board of Directors, the Main Board and the Status Commission ofThe Association of Independent Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina (AITBiH), the Association of Trade Unions of the Republic of Srpska (ATRS) and the Trade Unions of Brčko District (TBD), with the goal of establishing new relations and dialogues aimed at promoting trade-union interests and needs, • Conducting research as to the factors that hinder greater inclusion of women in the political life with the goal of implementing the 1325 Resolution of the Security Council, • Launching campaigns for the increased participation of women in the political life (including both female candidates on candidate lists and female voters) to the effect of implementing the 1325 Resolution of the Security Council.

14. Political life and decision-making - activities • Organizing training programs focused on the sensibilization of private enterprises,trade-unions and political parties forthe advancement of women in the decision-making positions in harmony with the recommendations of UN CEDAW Committee, • Continuing the activities in the promotion and awareness-raising on the 1325 Resolution of the UN Security Council– Women, peace and safety, • Continuing the activities in the promotion and awareness-raising among public office holders in the ministries about the 1325 Resolution of the UN Security Council– Women, peace and safety, • Preparing a brochure on the participation of women in the areas of peace activism, non-violent conflict solution and reduction of human rights abusein conflict situations.

15. Implementation ofthe Gender Action Plan • Gender Action Plan defines obligations of all BIH institutionsand organizations involved in fifteen abovementioned GAP areas. • Our goal is the implementation of GPA in all abovementioned areas in the forthcoming five-year period.

16. Implementation of Gender ActionPlan BiH • Implementation of GAP should increase gender equalityin all areas of public and private life, as another stepin the promotion of a healthy and progressive BIH society.

17. The Gender Equality Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina genderagencijabih1@bih.net.ba 033/209-761 Kulovića 4