Despite parliament's commitments for reforms, there was little change in 2015 regarding human rights for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Severe floods in 2014 worsened the already bleak economic and social prospects for internally displaced people and those who returned home after the war.

Journalists remained vulnerable to intimidation and threats. The authorities failed to make progress on ending discriminatory restrictions political office candidacy for Jews, Roma, and members of other minority groups. Roma remain the most vulnerable group, subject to widespread discrimination. The 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide highlighted the limited progress on justice for war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ethnic and Religious Discrimination

The government made no progress toward amending the constitution to eliminate ethnic and religious discrimination in candidacy for the national tripartite presidency and the House of Peoples. Currently, the constitution requires candidates for these institutions to come from one of the three main ethnic groups—Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats. The European Court of Human Rights in 2014 ruled to affirm a previous judgment that this limitation in the constitution violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

Authorities failed again to make changes to the voting system in the city of Mostar, ordered by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Residents of the city have been unable to vote in local elections since 2008.

Roma remain the most vulnerable group in the country, facing widespread discrimination in employment, education, and political representation. Lack of a free and universal birth registration system means that many Roma are not on the national public registry that records births, deaths, and marriages. This impedes their access to public services, including health care.

Accountability for War Crimes

The 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide shone a spotlight on the limited progress toward justice for war crimes committed in Bosnia. While the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has convicted 14 people of crimes committed at Srebrenica, and the trials of the alleged architects of the genocide continue in the Hague, progress in the national courts has been more limited.