The questionnaire contained questions on nationality, ethnic/national affiliation, religion and
mother tongue. Citizens had a full freedom of expression when it comes to questions pertaining
to nationality, ethnic/national affiliation, religion and mother tongue.
The enumerator had no right to suggest an answer; therefore, citizens could declare themselves
any way they feel, since it was possible to provide and fill in an answer that does not fall under
proposed modalities. Enumerators recorded all the answers, and statistical institutions assigned
codes to these answers, which are then recorded as such in the database.
Enumeration was done in Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian language, by using Latin or Cyrillic
script. Census questionnaires and methodological guidelines were published in Bosnian, Croatian
and Serbian language, Latin and Cyrillic script. Every enumerator had a manual with
questionnaires in the languages of national minorities living in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Before
enrolment, a member of a minority had the right to review a provisional questionnaire in the
language and script of their national minority. During their fieldwork, enumerators have used
‘Multilanguage Collection’, containing forms in minority languages represented in Bosnia and
Herzegovina (Albanian, Czech, English, Italian, Hebrew, Hungarian, Macedonian, German,
Polish, Romany, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Turkish and Ukrainian language).
Preliminary census results were published on 1 July 2016. According to the final, internationally
comparable census results, the number of permanent residents living in Bosnia and Herzegovina
is 3,531,159, of which 2,219,220 (62.85%) in the Federation of BiH, 1,228,423 inhabitants
(34.79%) in the Republika Srpska and 83,516 inhabitants (2.37%) in the Brcko District of BiH.
When it comes to ethnic breakdown, 50.11 percent of the population living in Bosnia and
Herzegovina declared themselves as Bosniaks, 30.78 percent as Serbs and 15.43 percent declared
themselves as Croats. The question on ethnicity was not answered by 0.77 percent of the
population, while less than 3 percent (96 539 persons) fall under the category of ‘Others’,
including members of 17 national minorities and other ethnic groups.
Political role (paragraphs 87-90) – Responses:
Recommendation (87-88)
- Efforts are made in accordance with Articles IV and V of the Constitution to resolve the right of
ethnic minorities, referred to under the Constitution as ‘Others’, which is characterised as
discrimination in the decision of the Strasbourg-based ECoHR in the case Sejdic and Finci vs.
BiH due to favouring and granting special privileges and benefits of the constituent peoples
(Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats) as compared to other ethnic groups, or 17 such groups in total in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, as determined under the Law on the Protection of National Minorities,
adopted in 2003. The implementation and enforcement of decisions of the European Court of
Human Rights in Strasbourg (Sejdic-Finci, Zornić, Pilav, Slaku et al.) will allow members of
national minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to have an equal status as do other three
constituent peoples in terms of their participation in public and political life.
In accordance with the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in this case, it is
necessary to prepare and submit into parliamentary procedure, through authorised proponents,
amendments to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bill on Amendments to the
Election Law.
We believe that the enforcement of these decision would adequately tackle discriminatory
provisions for national minorities and members of ‘Others’, and introduce into legal
arrangements adequate new terminology to be used for persons belonging to national minorities.
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