BiH disabled needs lack initiative

28/01/2012

High unemployment rate among the disabled in Bosnia and Herzegovina is largely due to lack of legal framework.

By Anes Alic for Southeast European Times in Sarajevo -- 28/01/12

Poor access to facilities is one of the problems disabled persons face in Bosnia and Herzegovina. [Reuters]

The disabled in the Federation Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) face many challenges -- from the slow implementation of laws ensuring their right to employment to poor recognition of their accessibility needs.

Authorities organised a workshop on unemployment for the disabled last month, proposing several strategies and projects. But even that event was held in a venue that was not accessible to people in wheelchairs.

"[These] situations are typical of the politicians' general attitude toward the disabled," Elvira Beslija, secretary-general of the FBiH Association of Paraplegics, told SETimes.

According to unofficial data -- since there are no formal numbers on the disabled -- there are 350,000 disabled persons in the country -- 100,000 in Republika Srpska (RS) and 250,000 in FBiH.

The disabled unemployment rate is around 85%.

It took five years for the FBiH parliament to pass the Law on Professional Rehabilitation, Training and Employment of Persons with Disabilities, and another year to implement it. The law was adopted in early 2010 and parliament pledged to form a special fund for its maintenance, which came through in April 2011.

Both the law and the corresponding fund were implemented in RS in 2005. Since then, 1,000 disabled persons have found jobs. But on the state level, no such law or fund exists.

The law was in part due to BiH's obligation as a signatory to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The law obligates all public companies and institutions to employ at least one person with disabilities for every 39 workers until 2013, after which the ratio will be one to 16.

Companies and institutions that fail to implement this provision are fined 25% of the average FBiH monthly salary, which was 423 euros in 2011, for not filling positions reserved for the disabled.

BiH's two entities allocate 532,000 euros annually to support the employment of the disabled, and the entity governments have offered year-long subsidies to employers who hire the handicapped.

According to Beslija, however, these actions have not garnered results.

"We need to create a long-term positive atmosphere for the employment of persons with disabilities," she said.

Several organizations representing the disabled decided to take measures into their own hands, founding companies and employing only their members.

Librag company, formed in 1996 by the Sarajevo Association of Deaf and Hearing Impaired Persons, specialises in metal works. It employs only the disabled, its own members.

"We almost went bankrupt a few times, but somehow made it through, mostly due to the help from foreign organisations and embassies," Librag Director Jasminka Karahasanovic told SETimes.

If the FBiH government "had passed the law [on the disabled] when it should have, six years ago, we would be strong and self-sustainable, with a chance to employ more people. But until the law was passed, we depended solely on the good will of the authorities and foreign donations," she added.

Mirza Jasarevic, from NGO Centre for Development and Support, says that the funds FBiH spent on social welfare since the end of the armed conflict could have employed half the entity's disabled.

"[The disabled] comprise the largest welfare category and a large part of the electorate," Jasarevic told SETimes.