Bosnia and Herzegovina

Background

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This map does not reflect a position by UNICEF on the legal status of any country or territory or the delimitation of any frontiers.

More than a decade after its war for independence, most of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s infrastructure has been restored to pre-conflict levels. While the country has nearly achieved all of the Millennium Development Goals, the pace of reform has slowed. A complex and fragmented governmental structure has left gaps in the delivery of social services, depriving many marginalized children of access to health care and education.

Issues facing children in Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Poverty has a disproportionate effect on children, since larger families are much more likely to be poor.
• National primary school attendance rates are 93 per cent, but only one third of Roma children attend classes. Drop-out rates are high among rural children. Students with special needs are often excluded from the education system.
• Ethnic tensions linger as a bitter legacy of the war. Though some schools are integrating Bosnian and Croat children, many still operate as ‘two schools under one roof’, in which children of different backgrounds attend separate classes and have no interaction with students outside their own ethnic group.
• Years of armed conflict left as many as 1 million landmines and other unexploded ordnance, which claimed more than 15,000 victims – one quarter of them children – between 1996 and 2006.
• Child trafficking is an urgent concern throughout the entire region.
• Though HIV/AIDS prevalence rates are extremely low, underreporting of infections, insufficient education and knowledge about HIV/AIDS, stigmatization of victims and their families and an increase in risk behaviours among young people are major challenges. In 2006, the first case of mother-to-child transmission of HIV was recorded in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Activities and results for children

• UNICEF provides vaccines to ensure that all children under age five are fully immunized against preventable diseases.
• Hundreds of primary schools have implemented the child-centred teaching approach promoted by UNICEF. Thousands of teachers have been trained to emphasize child participation and critical thinking, discarding authoritarian and textbook-driven methods.
• UNICEF has promoted voluntary confidential counselling and testing services for HIV/AIDS, and organized a study among injecting drug users to collect data on patterns of risk behaviour and prevalence of HIV.
• More than 1,700 Roma and internally displaced families have attended classes to improve their parenting and child-care skills. 
• UNICEF has furnished 90 classrooms in 34 schools, creating a more stimulating and child-friendly environment.
• In early 2007, UNICEF secured funding to provide 10,400 additional warning signs to be posted on land suspected of containing mines and other unexploded ordnance. Continuous mine risk education over the past few years has gradually reduced the number of child victims.
• UNICEF has developed widely accepted guidelines for fighting child trafficking while fully protecting the rights of victims.
• A national strategy introduced in late 2006 aims to eliminate iodine deficiency disorders in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the end of 2010.
• The media is devoting greater coverage to issues affecting children, thanks in part to UNICEF’s ongoing efforts to educate journalists.