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Dokument #2111830
USDOS – US Department of State (Autor)
The constitutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and each of the country’s two entities – the Federation of BiH (the Federation) and the Republika Srpska (RS) – provide for freedom of religious thought and practice, prohibit religious discrimination, and allow registered religious organizations to operate freely. The Federation and RS are each referred to as an ‘entity.’ The self-governing Brcko District follows the national law on religious freedom. The country’s constitution reserves all positions in the three-member Presidency and one house of parliament to members of the three major ethnic groups, known as “constituent peoples” – Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs – who are predominantly Muslim, Roman Catholic, and Serbian Orthodox, respectively. Jews and members of other minority groups are unable to serve in those positions. The Federation constitution declares religion to be “a vital national interest” of the constituent peoples. The RS constitution establishes the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) as “the Church of the Serb people and other people of Orthodox religion.”
In August, officials summoned Ejub Tucakovi for questioning as a suspect in a criminal case for removing an official seal preventing access to the Rabrani mosque in Neum municipality. Local authorities, who had long refused to allow the expansion of the mosque, sealed it after work was done without a permit. In its annual report, the Islamic Community Commission on Religious Freedom stated that the RS government continued to use Orthodox symbols and iconography in public institutions, including schools, and that many schools and local governments continued to celebrate religious holidays and baptisms, showing favoritism toward the SOC. The official religious representatives of Muslims in the country (Islamic Community) commented on what they saw as anti-Muslim rhetoric by RS President Milorad Dodik. There was no progress within the Presidency during the year on concluding an agreement drafted in 2015 between the state and the Islamic Community. Leaders of the four traditional religious communities continued to state that the lack of a national law on restitution, for both religious communities and private citizens, hindered efforts of religious communities to resolve claims of properties confiscated under communist rule from 1946 to 1965. According to government officials, the government did not implement key provisions of the law on religion as required under the implementing regulations for the religious freedom law in 2019. The government again did not take steps to follow a 2009 judgment by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that recommended the country amend its constitution to allow members of minority groups, including Jews and Roma, to run for the Presidency and the House of Peoples, the upper house of the national parliament.
According to the Muslim, Catholic, and Serb Orthodox religious communities, authorities continued to discriminate against them in regions where those groups constituted religious minorities, including through the selective enforcement of their rights regarding access to education, language inclusion, employment, health care, and other social services. Despite a 2015 Constitutional Court ruling that the celebration of January 9 as “Republika Srpska Day” was unconstitutional, RS officials continued to organize official ceremonies around this day. On May 9, the Mostar City Council changed the names on signs of six streets in Mostar that had been named after individuals who were members of the World War II-era Ustasha, a Croatian fascist, ultranationalist organization allied with the Nazis during World War II.
The BiH Interreligious Council (IRC) recorded four incidents of religious intolerance and hatred against religious officials and believers and eight cases of vandalism against religious buildings and cemeteries during the year. The IRC again stated it believed the actual number of such religiously motivated incidents was much higher but that members of religious groups feared reporting them. According to media reports, one incident included vandalism in June at a mosque and private homes in the town of Sumanci. In 2022, according to its most recent report, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reported higher numbers, including 23 incidents targeting Muslims, 17 targeting Catholics, 16 targeting Orthodox Christians, and one targeting Jews. The increased number of incidents compared with 2021, all of which were reported to the police, included vandalism of religious sites, desecration of graveyards, threats against religious believers and officials, including Muslim women for wearing recognizable attire, and disturbances of religious ceremonies. Some religious services reportedly continued to be used to support activities of radical pokrets (movements), such as the Ravnogorski Pokret, and its annual gathering in Visegrad. On January 9, fans of the Serbian soccer club Crvena Zvezda [Red Star] celebrated the anniversary of the illegal 1992 declaration of the Republika Srpska’s founding (an unconstitutional declaration not internationally or legally recognized) with a bonfire on Visegrad’s Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic Bridge, a site where many Bosniak Muslims were killed by Serbs. On January 26, the SOC withdrew from the IRC, blaming recent ethnic tensions that, according to the SOC, the IRC did not adequately condemn. According to local media, during a local soccer match in Zenica on November 2, a group of approximately 200 Celik soccer club fans held up large banners insulting Mostar’s Croatian Sports Club Zrinjski’s vice-president, Amir Gross Kabiri, an Israeli, with an antisemitic slur, “You don’t deserve titles and first places, when you are a Jewish whore.”
U.S. embassy officials engaged with national government officials, as well as entity and municipal authorities, to promote respect for religious diversity, press for equal treatment for religious minorities, and encourage a greater role for religious communities in fostering reconciliation and mutual understanding. Embassy officials reiterated to national government officials the need to adopt restitution legislation and the importance of concluding the agreement with the Islamic Community and implementing agreements with the SOC and Catholic Church. In July, the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, and the Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice visited the country. They attended the 28th annual July 11 commemoration of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide and met with leaders of the four major faith groups in Sarajevo to discuss issues of cooperation, interreligious dialogue, and reconciliation. On April 26, in response to the refusal of local authorities to allow the expansion of the Rabrani mosque, the Ambassador met with the mayor of Neum, urging him to respect the rights of the Islamic religious community. Embassy officials held meetings and hosted events with representatives of the Islamic, Orthodox, Catholic, and Jewish communities. At these events, embassy officials emphasized the importance of interreligious dialogue and respect for religious diversity and urged the religious communities to continue efforts to foster reconciliation, counter violent extremism related to religion, and condemn intolerance and hate speech.
The U.S. government estimates the total population at 3.8 million (midyear 2023). In 2022, the UN estimated population at the lower figure of 3.2 million. A 2018 BiH government labor force survey estimates the population at or near 2.7 million. According to the country’s 2013 census (the most recent), Sunni Muslims constitute approximately 51 percent of the population, Serbian Orthodox Christians 31 percent, Roman Catholics 15 percent, and others, including Protestants and Jews, 3 percent.
There is a strong correlation between ethnicity and religion: ethnic Serbs affiliate primarily with the SOC, ethnic Croats with the Catholic Church, and Bosniaks are predominantly Muslims. The Jewish community of BiH estimates it has approximately 500 members who self-identify as Jewish and an additional approximately 800 members with at least one Jewish parent. The majority of the country’s Jewish community lives in Sarajevo. The majority of Serbian Orthodox live in the RS, and most Muslims and Catholics in the Federation. Protestant and most other small religious communities have their largest number of adherents in Sarajevo and Banja Luka.
Annex IV of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which serves as the country’s constitution, provides for freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. It stipulates no one shall be deprived of citizenship on the grounds of religion and that all persons shall enjoy the same rights and freedoms without discrimination as to religion.
The entity constitution of the Federation states all individuals shall have freedom of religion, including of public and private worship, and freedom from discrimination based on religion or creed. The entity constitution specifically defines religion as a vital national interest of the constituent peoples.
The entity constitution of the RS establishes the SOC as “the Church of the Serb people and other people of Orthodox religion.” It provides for equal freedoms, rights, and duties for all citizens irrespective of religion and prohibits any incitement to religious hatred or intolerance. It specifies religious communities shall be equal before the law and free to manage their religious affairs and hold religious services, open religious schools and conduct religious education in all schools, engage in commercial activities, receive gifts, and establish and manage endowments in accordance with the law.
The law prohibits discriminations on any grounds, including religion or belief.
The self-governing Brcko District follows the national law on religion.
A national law on religion provides for freedom of conscience and grants legal status to “churches and religious communities.” To acquire official status as a recognized religious community, religious groups must register. The constitutions of BiH, the Federation entity, and the RS entity state that registered religious organizations are allowed to operate freely.
Registration affords numerous rights to religious communities that are not available to those that do not register, including the right to conduct collaborative actions such as charity work, fundraising, and constructing and occupying places of worship. The law on religion states that churches and religious communities serve as representative institutions and organizations of believers, founded in accordance with their own regulations, teachings, beliefs, traditions, and practices. The law recognizes the legal status of four “traditional” religious communities: the Islamic Community (the representative organization of the country’s Muslim community), SOC, the Catholic Church, and the Jewish community. Each group operates under its own formal or informal governing principles, including designations of persons in leadership at various levels and within various jurisdictions who speak officially on behalf of the group. The Ministry of Justice maintains a unified register of all religious communities, and the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees (MHRR) is responsible for documenting violations of religious freedom. The law requires the MHHR to request from all state, entity, cantonal, and municipal authorities additional information to respond to violation reports. Such authorities must then submit a report on the activities carried out within seven days.
According to law, any group of 300 or more adult citizens may apply to register a new religious community (defined as non-Christian) or church through a written application to the Ministry of Justice. Requirements for registration include an application attaching religious statutes that define the method of religious practice and a petition for establishment with the signatures of at least 30 founders. The ministry must issue a decision within 30 days of receipt of the application. The law stipulates the ministry may deny the application if it concludes the content and manner of worship may be “contrary to legal order, public morale, or is damaging to the life and health or other rights and freedoms of believers and citizens.” A group may appeal a negative decision to the national-level Council of Ministers. The law allows registered religious communities to establish their own suborganizations, which may operate without restriction.
The law states that no new church or religious community may be founded bearing the same or similar name as an existing church or religious community. The law also states no one may use the symbols, insignia, or attributes of a church or religious community without its consent.
Unregistered religious groups may assemble to practice their religion, but they have no legal status and may not represent themselves as a religious community.
In addition to registered churches and religious communities, there are educational, charitable, and other institutions, known as “legal subjects,” that belong to these communities but are registered as separate legal entities in the Ministry of Justice registry. The Islamic Community has 121 legal subjects, the Catholic Church 404, the Orthodox Church 550, the Jewish community eight, and other churches and religious communities and alliances (primarily Protestant groups) have 50.
Pursuant to a 2015 decision of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, employees of judicial institutions are prohibited from wearing any form of religious insignia in the workplace, including headscarves, and are prohibited from openly practicing religion at work, such as by praying or proselytizing.
The government recognizes the Islamic Community as the sole, supreme institutional religious authority for all Muslims in the country, including immigrants and refugees, as well as for Bosniaks and other Muslim nationals living outside the country who accept the Islamic Community’s authority. According to the law, no Islamic group may register with the Ministry of Justice or open a mosque without the permission of the Islamic Community.
The law on religion states that churches and religious communities must pay taxes and contributions on earnings of their employees (pension, health, and disability insurance). There is no uniform system for providing pensions and health benefits for religious officials, as the Federation and the RS manage their own systems. In the Federation, all 10 cantons generally include religious officials in their health insurance systems, but the systems vary from canton to canton. For example, Sarajevo Canton does not include religious workers in its health insurance system but offers such insurance to religious officials under more favorable terms than those available to other citizens. In the RS, pension benefits and disability insurance are provided to SOC religious workers who live there.
The criminal codes of all three administrative units in the country (national level and each of the two entities) regulate hate crimes. The provisions in these codes define hate crimes as any criminal act committed because of religious belief or various other factors. The criminal codes also stipulate that these motivations be considered aggravating circumstances of a criminal act unless the code itself stipulates harsher punishments.
Under the law on religion, the framework national-level law on elementary and high school education, and laws of the RS and each of the 10 Federation cantons, every citizen has a right to receive religious education, in accordance with parents’ right to have religious education for their children in public schools and preschools. Religious education is an elective school subject, but once a student chooses a religious curriculum at an early grade level, that student must continue with religious education until high school graduation. Parents may opt for an ethics course instead of religion classes. If a school does not offer an ethics course, students may simply opt out of religious education. Religious communities train and provide accreditation to respective religious education teachers, who are in turn selected and employed by individual schools. The Islamic Community, SOC, and Catholic Church develop and maintain religious curricula across the country, which are then formally approved by relevant cantonal and entity ministries of education.
In the Federation’s five Bosniak-majority cantons, primary and secondary schools offer Islamic religious instruction as a twice-weekly course, except in Sarajevo Canton, where the course is offered once per week. In cantons with Croat majorities, Croat students in primary and secondary schools may attend an elective Catholic religion course twice a week or take a course in ethics. In Sarajevo Canton, the Ministry of Education offers Orthodox, Protestant, Islamic, and Catholic religious education. The RS Ministry of Education offers elective Orthodox religious education in elementary and secondary schools. In both the RS and the Federation entities, as well as Brcko District, students belonging to a registered minority religious community may enroll in a course pertaining to that religious community, if there are at least 18 interested students.
The national constitution provides for political representation of the three major ethnic groups – Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs – in the government and armed forces. The constitution makes no explicit mention of representation for religious groups, although each ethnicity mentioned by the constitution is generally associated with a particular religious group.
The national constitution reserves all positions in the House of Peoples (one of two houses of parliament) for members of the three major ethnic groups according to quotas based on their ethnicity only. The Law on the Council of Ministers apportions ministerial seats among the three groups. The three-member Presidency must consist of one Bosniak, one Croat, and one Serb.
A law against discrimination prohibits exclusion, limitation, or preferential treatment of individuals based specifically on religion in employment and the provision of social services in both the government and private sectors.
The country has no law on restitution that would allow for the return of, or compensation for, property, including property owned by religious groups, nationalized or expropriated under communist rule.
The country is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The government again did not take steps to implement a 2009 judgment by the ECHR that the country’s constitution contravenes the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms because it does not allow members of minority groups, including Jews and Roma, to run for the Presidency and the BiH House of Peoples chamber of parliament. Political leaders did not consider the electoral and constitutional reforms that, according to international experts, would have included implementation of the court’s decision.
On August 29, the ECHR ruled in the case of Kovacevic v. Bosnia and Herzegovina that the country’s constitution and certain electoral rules based on territorial and ethnic requirements violated the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The ECHR held that the BiH Constitution’s Articles IV and V – which address the composition of the BiH House of Peoples (HoP) and elections to the BiH Presidency, respectively – violate Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 of the Convention. This was the sixth similar decision by the ECHR.
According to the Muslim, Catholic, and Serb Orthodox religious communities, authorities continued to discriminate against them through the selective enforcement of their rights regarding access to education, language, employment, health care, and other social services in regions where those groups constituted religious minorities. They reported refugees returning to their original communities pursuant to the Dayton Peace Agreement were particularly apt to experience discrimination. On August 31, Head of the Islamic Community Husein Effendi Kavazovic wrote an open letter to High Representative Christian Schmidt expressing dissatisfaction with the lack of attention to this problem by the Office of the High Representative and his concern regarding what he called frequent provocations and acts of intimidation directed against non-Serbs, especially Bosniaks. Kavazovic highlighted the fact that the perpetrators of these confrontations were not prosecuted and asked the High Representative to address the underrepresentation of non-Serbs in police and entity institutions in the RS.
Religious leaders also continued to state that police were reluctant to investigate potential hate crimes targeting religious minority communities and said there was a lack of adequate representation by minority members within law enforcement organizations. Leaders of the IRC, whose membership comprises three of the four traditional religious communities following the March withdrawal of the SOC, said local authorities throughout the country continued to discriminate against minority victims by failing to investigate and prosecute threats of violence, harassment, and vandalism against them. IRC leaders said they were encouraged, however, that some police and prosecutors’ offices were classifying some incidents as felonies instead of misdemeanors, as they had previously done more commonly. The IRC continued to state that law enforcement officials at times failed to investigate motives or take into consideration that the acts occurred at religious sites and could be categorized as hate crimes. The IRC said that almost all incidents happened to a group or individuals living in an area where they were in the minority. These communities often were home to returned wartime refugees who did not have full access to other rights, including education and political representation by a member of their community, and who were otherwise vulnerable. In many cases, IRC leaders said such individuals hesitated to report incidents to police or media, particularly in regions where their religious group was a minority, out of fear that related public attention could result in retaliation or raise tensions in the community with negative effects on community members.
In June, according to media reports, unidentified individuals vandalized a mosque and private homes in the town of Sumanci in the Federation. Perpetrators broke windows and damaged sacred items in the mosque. Imam Adem Effendi Suta stated that the attackers threatened to return to cause greater damage and attack individuals. Authorities launched an investigation to identify the perpetrators, which was ongoing at year’s end.
The RS government again did not fulfill its financial commitments to support the IRC, while the national Council of Ministers and Brcko District continued to provide an annual grant to the IRC from their respective budgets. As of the end of the year, the Federation government also had not honored its 2023 funding commitment for the IRC budget. The funding commitments stemmed from memoranda of cooperation that the national government as well as the governments of both the Federation and RS entities and the Brcko District concluded with the IRC in 2011. The memoranda stipulated annual contributions to the IRC budget of 100,000 KM ($56,000) from the national budget, 50,000 KM ($28,000) from each of the entities, and 20,000 KM ($11,300) from Brcko District. In September, the Sarajevo Canton Government contributed 26,000 KM ($14,700) to the IRC.
On May 9, the Mostar City Council renamed six streets and changed the signs on streets that had been named after individuals who were members of the Ustasha, a fascist and antisemitic organization allied with the Nazis during World War II. This implemented a 2022 resolution by the Mostar City Council, following significant public and international pressure.
Although the decision of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council banning employees of judicial institutions from wearing religious insignia or engaging in religious practices at work remained in place, there were no reports of the decision being enforced during the year.
Despite a 2015 BiH Constitutional Court ruling that the celebration of January 9 as “Republika Srpska Day” was unconstitutional, Republika Srpska officials continued to organize official ceremonies commemorating this day. This included a military parade in East Sarajevo, a municipality in the Republika Srpska which borders Sarajevo. High Representative Schmidt, in response to the celebrations and parade, said: “Decisions of the BiH Constitutional Court are final and binding and must be respected in the entire territory of BiH. Therefore, celebrating January 9 as the [Republika Srpska] Day shows a clear disregard for the Constitution of BiH. [Former leaders] Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are convicted war criminals and authors of genocide. Therefore, they must be named criminals and not heroes. I ask all public officials in BiH to respect this and move towards a shared future.” The OSCE mission reported observing an increase in religiously motivated incidents around holidays such as the Republika Srpska Day on January 9 (declared unconstitutional), and various war-related commemorations, as well as the use of religious services by congregations and religious officials to promote nationalism, ethnocentrism, and division among different religious and ethnic communities.
The IRC recorded four incidents of religious intolerance and hatred against religious officials and believers and eight cases of vandalism against religious buildings and cemeteries during the year, compared with two incidents against religious officials and 15 incidents of vandalism in 2022. Of the eight incidents of vandalism, three targeted Islamic, three targeted Orthodox, and two targeted Catholic properties. Because religion and ethnicity often are closely linked, it was difficult to categorize many actions as solely based on religious identity.
The IRC again stated it believed the actual number of religiously motivated incidents against religious persons or buildings was much higher but that members of religious groups feared reporting them. The IRC also stated it lacked the staff, capacity, or funding to follow up in detail on every case, and therefore was forced to limit its activities to only registering and condemning incidents that were reported to them by religious officials or reported in the media.
On March 23, unknown perpetrators beat, robbed, and tied up two elderly Bosniak returnees in the village of Omeragici in Visegrad Municipality in the RS. High Representative Schmidt condemned “the cowardly attack” on the two returnees and called on the authorities to find and punish the perpetrators, adding that the “citizens have the right to a safe and free life wherever they want in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
On January 14, a video recording posted on social media showed a young man urinating on the wall of Dasnica Mosque in Bijeljina in the RS, while another man who recorded the footage was heard cursing and insulting Muslims. Representatives of the Islamic Community in Bijeljina forwarded the video recording to the Bijeljina Police Administration. On January 15, the police identified the perpetrators as two 17-year-old boys. Authorities ordered the Bijeljina Prosecutor’s Office to report on actions undertaken, and to consider possible prosecution for hate crimes. No additional information was available as of year’s end.
On March 26, an unknown perpetrator attempted to break down the door of the Orthodox Church of the Ascension of the Lord in Stolac in the Federation. Nedeljko Djogo, Serb councilor in the Stolac Municipal Council, strongly condemned the incident, saying that the action sent a very threatening message for Serbs in Stolac. Local police investigated the event but had not identified a perpetrator as of year’s end.
On May 6, the parish priest in the village of Dobrinje, in Visoko Municipality in the Federation, reported that unknown individuals broke into and vandalized the Catholic chapel of Saint Leopold Mandic. The priest could not determine the exact time of the incident, as the chapel is used only during some religious holidays. In addition to vandalizing the interior, the unknown individuals stole several liturgical objects.
According to OSCE reporting from 2022, the most recent year for which data was available, courts sentenced four perpetrators to six months of suspended imprisonment for incitement to hatred following a police investigation into online threats on religious and ethnic grounds made in 2019 against the Orthodox priest of Saint Basil of Ostrog Church in Blagaj, near Mostar in the Federation. In another case, a Mostar court sentenced the perpetrator of online incitement to antisemitic hatred committed in 2020 to two years suspended imprisonment. Courts issued fines to perpetrators in multiple misdemeanor cases of disturbance of public peace and order, including three incidents motivated by religious bias from 2022.
The OSCE reported 23 incidents targeting Muslims in 2022, 17 targeting Catholics, 16 targeting Orthodox Christians, and one targeting Jews. The increased number of incidents compared to 2021, all of which were reported to the police, included vandalism of religious sites, desecration of graveyards, threats against religious believers and officials, including threats against Muslim women for wearing religious attire, and disturbances of religious ceremonies.
Burglars and thieves continued to target religious facilities. According to IRC, such incidents continued to create a sense of insecurity, particularly in small religious communities. In some instances, the police were able to identify the perpetrators.
As in previous years, some religious services reportedly continued to be used to support activities of radical movements, such as the Ravnogorski Pokret, an annual gathering in Visegrad, in the RS, promoting Serb nationalism. The so-called Draza’s Day, named after the leader of the pro-Nazi antisemitic Ravna Gora movement, Draza Mihailovic, was commemorated in the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bijeljina in the RS, while a memorial service was held in the Bijeljina Orthodox Cathedral honoring Draza Mihailovic on the 76th anniversary of his death. In the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Banja Luka in the RS, the ethnic Serb “Bastionik” organization also held a memorial service and invited “all believing patriots to pray together liturgically for the repose of the soul of the most decorated Serb officer in history.”
On February 2, unknown persons placed graffiti threatening to slaughter Muslims on the Franjo Tudjman Bridge in Capljina, a majority-Croat municipality in the Federation with a large Bosniak minority. The city administration condemned the incident and painted over the graffiti the next day. The Islamic Community called on law enforcement authorities to promptly investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice. According to media, anti-Bosniak graffiti was common in Capljina and across the Herzegovina region of the Federation.
On January 9, Bosnian Serb fans of the Belgrade-based Serbian soccer club Crvena Zvezda celebrated the 31st anniversary of the illegal 1992 declaration of the Republika Srpska’s founding (an unconstitutional declaration not internationally or legally recognized) with a bonfire on Visegrad’s Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic Bridge, a site where many Bosniak Muslims were killed by Serbs in 1992.
The Council of Muftis of the Islamic Community said it was continuing efforts to persuade the unregistered Islamic congregations known as para-jamaats, which gathered predominantly Salafist followers and operated outside the purview of the Islamic Community, to cease what they described as “unsanctioned” religious practices and officially unite with the Islamic Community. The Islamic Community reported there continued to be 13 active para-jamaats, seven fewer than in 2022. According to the Islamic Community, of these 13 groups, four had memberships consisting of up to 40 families, while other para-jamaats comprised only a handful of believers, mostly those who come from abroad during holidays. With the fall of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic Community said there had been a weakening of violent and militant movements within the Salafist movement in the country.
On July 8, Mostar Mufti Salem Effendi Dedovic and Zahumlje-Herzegovina Orthodox Bishop Dimitrije laid a cornerstone marking the beginning of reconstruction of the Dugalica Mosque in Nevesinje in the RS. Mufti Dedovic emphasized the importance of that act, saying it was a clear message of hope and encouragement for the future and that the current generation of religious leaders of the Islamic Community and the Zahumlje-Herzegovina Eparchy in Herzegovina were determined to work together to build a better life for all peoples in the area. Bishop Dimitrije emphasized the importance of cultivating good relations between the two religious groups and said that it was important that the two communities grow in their identities alongside one another. The bishop praised the Mufti’s support for the reconstruction of the Orthodox Cathedral in Mostar.
On January 26, Metropolitan of the SOC in BiH Hrizostom sent a letter to the IRC informing them that the SOC was leaving the IRC over what he termed the organization’s failure to adequately condemn recent ethnic tensions in the country. The other IRC members underscored that the ethnic incidents the Metropolitan cited as reasons for leaving the IRC instead pointed to the importance of continuing, even increasing, interreligious dialogue and reconciliation activities. The SOC withdrew its full-time staff from the IRC Secretariat and the Executive Board, as well as 18 local chapters across the country. Remaining IRC members continued with the IRC’s activities, while leaving the door open for the SOC’s future return. The IRC continued working on different projects through its local chapters, primarily focusing on youth and women. IRC projects included publishing a calendar of religious holidays of various groups and cooperation on health care with international donors.
U.S. embassy officials engaged with the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entity, cantonal, and municipal authorities, as well as religious leaders and communities to promote respect for religious diversity, press for equal treatment for religious minorities, and encourage a greater role for religious communities in fostering reconciliation and mutual understanding. Embassy officials reiterated to government officials the need to adopt restitution legislation and the importance of concluding the agreement with the Islamic Community and implementing the agreements with the SOC and Catholic Church.
On July 9-14, the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, and the Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice visited the country. They attended the annual July 11 commemoration of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide. They also met in Sarajevo with the leaders of the four major faith groups, the SOC, the Catholic Church, the Islamic Community, and the Jewish community, to discuss issues of cooperation, interreligious dialogue, and reconciliation.
On April 26, in response to the refusal of local authorities to allow the renovation of the Rabrani mosque, the Ambassador met with the mayor of Neum, urging him to respect the rights of religious communities. The Ambassador also visited the mosque and met with a small group of Bosniak Muslims and their imam, pledging further support in finding a resolution toward gaining legal status for the mosque.
In April, the Ambassador hosted an iftar for a small group of next-generation leaders – teachers from single-ethnic schools, teachers from madrassahs, and madrassah directors. The Ambassador discussed with them the importance of overcoming differences to promote genuine reconciliation and religious tolerance.
On April 18, the Ambassador led a delegation that included the Ambassador of the United Kingdom, seven ambassadors of EU member states, the Principal Deputy High Representative, the Chargé d’Affaires of Montenegro, and an OSCE representative to a commemoration at the Donja Gradina killing field, a component of the Jasenovac concentration camp across the Sava River in Croatia, which was operated by the Ustasha fascist regime from 1941 to 1945. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum estimated that the Ustasha killed 75,000 to 99,000 prisoners at the site, primarily Serb civilians but also Jews and others.
On January 27, the Ambassador joined the local Jewish Community in marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, laying a wreath at the Borak Jewish Cemetery in Sarajevo.
Throughout the year, U.S. government officials continued to hold meetings and host events with representatives of the Muslim, Orthodox, Catholic, and Jewish communities. At these events, embassy officials emphasized the importance of interreligious dialogue and respect for religious diversity and urged the religious communities to continue efforts to foster reconciliation, counter violent extremism related to religion, and condemn intolerance and hate speech.
A U.S. government-funded program, launched in 2021, continued to provide activities designed to increase interethnic and interfaith cooperation and to address barriers to religious freedom.
In September, 80 students from three madrassahs run by the Islamic Community and one segregated high school from around the country successfully completed an embassy-funded two-year intensive English language program that brought together students of different backgrounds from underserved communities into one mixed, U.S.-style classroom. In all participating high schools, teachers challenged students to promote peace, cooperation, and tolerance in their communities.
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