Committee Chairman Meho Omerovic said it was very important for state institutions, the National Assembly and its relevant Committee to keep close ties with civil society organisations, especially in the areas troubled by evident human rights violations. Unfortunately, the LGBT community belongs to the category of vulnerable population groups.

Meho Omerovic said that the Committee would continue to monitor the situation and implement all measures available to it according to the National Assembly Rules of Procedure and informed the participants of the roundtable that the Committee will be reviewing the Commissioner for Protection of Equality and Ombudsman’s 2014 Regular Annual Report at its sitting on 15 April. Omerovic added that the Committee would also soon be reviewing the Draft Action Plan for Chapter 23 – judiciary and fundamental human rights.

The representatives of the Forum for Ethnic Relations and organisation Labris presented the public policies in the fields of discrimination, education, health, socio-economic stability and culture of the LGBT population. They listed the problems they come up against in all segments of life, among which social discrimination is the biggest, also sharing the statistical fact that 80% of the population do not want an LGBT person in their family.

The roundtable was also attended by representatives of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, Office for Human and Minority Rights, Commissioner for Protection of Equality and Provincial Ombudsman.