Human Rights Musical Chairs

I was in a police station recently (will post the whole story soon) asking for their help and assistance as i was being harassed and threatened by a person who had already assaulted me before. Policeman took my statement and after finding out I worked in a human rights institution he proudly told me:
"I can't help you. Because of you I cannot do my work properly, like I used to. Its because of your human rights that I cannot work. In 1989 I could have gone to this person's home and made sure they never bother you again, you know what I mean. I have men who would have made sure she never comes near you. Now my hands are tied. Its all because of your European Convention. Its the Article 3 that particularly bothers me, but i have found a way to work around it." He seemed really pleased with himself.

High representative in BiH Miroslav Lajcak criticized the Bosnian Minister for human rights Safet Halilovic last week, stating that he has done nothing since starting this post a year ago.

Ombudsman for human rights in BiH, Vitomir Popovic, was caught threatening a journalist last week saying that "he should be shot".

Unfortunately, human rights have not been taken or implemented seriously in BiH. Most people working in human rights in BiH today, be it in education, NGOs or governmental institutions, were born and bread in the old communist system which was not built on democratic principles. Just like the policeman, most of these people are finding ways to work around human rights, rather than implementing them. Worse still, rather than dealing with real problems, great majority are donor driven, thus doing only the work international donors will finance. The platform for human rights is only seen as an extra job market and not actually as a platform for making sure citizens feel safe, respected and empowered. The same faces keep swapping places, round and round. Its become a farce, like a game of musical chairs. Each round sees less faces, only more desperate to hold on. As the international money is drying up so is the will (or care?) of Bosnians to keep fighting for their human rights.

It is really sad to see that in Bosnia they never learned to care for human rights because ultimately, people who do not care about human rights do not care about their own dignity.