Full legal context
Bosnia and Herzegovina is one country with several criminal codes, and that is the first thing to understand about LGBTQ rights here. The state-level anti-discrimination law is one of the better ones in Europe on paper — it names sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics, and scores 78 % with ILGA-Europe. But criminal and family law belong to the two entities and to Brčko District, and they have been moving in opposite directions. In March 2025 the National Assembly of Republika Srpska struck gender identity out of its criminal code, and trans people in half the country lost their protection against hate crime in a single vote. Same-sex couples have no recognition anywhere in the country at all.
Here is the historical overview of the legalisation of homosexuality and gay rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Phase I: Decriminalisation, Entity by Entity
The war ended in 1995 and left a state made of two entities and a self-governing district, each with its own criminal code. Decriminalisation did not happen once, therefore, but three times and several years apart, the Federation first and Brčko District last. For a stretch of years an act that was legal in Sarajevo was still an offence elsewhere in the same country — the pattern that repeats through everything below.
Phase II: The Festival That Was Attacked (2008–2014)
2008: The Queer Sarajevo Festival is attacked on its opening night and abandoned; eight people are injured. It takes until 2014 for the Constitutional Court to find that the authorities had failed their duty to protect freedom of assembly.
2014: The Merlinka queer film festival in Sarajevo is attacked by masked men.
Between those two dates almost no public LGBTIQ event of any size was attempted anywhere in the country.
Phase III: The Laws (2003–2016)
The statute book moved while the street did not, driven largely by the requirements of EU approximation.
2003: The Law on Gender Equality prohibits discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.
2009: The state-level Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination is adopted.
2016: Parliament amends that law in July to name sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics explicitly — the amendment that puts Bosnia near the top of the equality category to this day. In April of the same year the Federation amends its criminal code to cover crimes motivated by sexual orientation and gender identity; Republika Srpska and Brčko District already had comparable provisions.
Phase IV: The March (2019–2026)
2019: The first BiH Pride March is held in Sarajevo on 8 September with roughly 2,000 participants, behind one of the largest police operations the city has mounted for a civil event. It becomes annual.
2026: The seventh march takes place on 20 June under the slogan "Sve nam boje dobro stoje" — all our colours suit us — with several hundred participants and demands aimed at legislation, the school system and everyday safety.
Phase V: Two Directions at Once (2023–2026)
2023: On 18 March, hours after police in Banja Luka banned a planned LGBTIQ event, a group of thirty to forty people attacks the activists in the presence of police. Several are hurt and three need hospital treatment. Nobody has been held to account, and no official LGBTIQ event has been held in Republika Srpska since.
2025: In March the National Assembly of Republika Srpska removes gender identity from the protected characteristics in its criminal code. In October the government of the Federation convenes the first session of a working group on a Same-Sex Partnership Law — the first formal step after years of advocacy. By the end of the year no draft had been published and no timetable given.
Everything else is still missing. Changing legal gender requires surgery and medical treatment and scores 25 %. Conversion therapy is not banned. Intersex children have no protection whatever. Bosnia and Herzegovina has been an EU candidate country since December 2022, which is where the pressure for the rest of it now comes from.
