The Civil Service Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the support of the European Union and the Council of Europe, organised on the mountain Jahorina the first training for 26 civil servants on recognising and responding to cases of hate speech. This training, that took place on 8 and 9 July 2024, is a follow-up of the already developed online course, successful completion of which was a pre-requisite for the attendance of the in-person training.

The training emphasised distinguishing between hate speech and freedom of speech, as well as identifying when hate speech should be addressed under criminal law, civil law, or as an offensive or harmful expression. A key point highlighted was the proactive use of the Code of Conduct as a preventive measure to combat hate speech among civil servants.

Zdravko Kujundžija, Head of the training section of the Civil Service Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina thanked the Council of Europe and the European Union for the help in organising the two-day training, as well as the creation of the online course. He stated that „...hate speech represents a serious challenge and that it is our duty as civil servants to ensure a safe and inclusive work environment for all citizens and employees. This workshop provided the tools and knowledge needed to recognise and effectively suppress hate speech, and promote the values ​​of tolerance, respect and equality.“

This initiative is in line with a foreseen set of activities institutions are to implement within the document Mapping responses to hate speech in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A situational analysis and mapping report’, in order to challenge paradigms on impunity for hate speech and bias used for hate speech. This document was adopted by the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 27 November 2023, at the proposal of the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This training was organised with the support of the action "Towards an equal, inclusive and tolerant Bosnia and Herzegovina", which is implemented within the framework of the joint programme of the European Union and the Council of Europe "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye".