REGIONAL CONFERENCE "GUARDIANS OF RIGHTS" HELD IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (October 22,2007) – Since the end of the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia the position of disabled persons in Bosnia has only gotten worse. Coordination between relevant non-governmental organisations needs to be improved in order to make the position of disabled persons better. This is one of the conclusions from the regional conference “Guardians of Rights” held at Ilidza near Sarajevo.

The Sarajevo University’s Centre for Human Rights, the Croatian Helsinki Committee and the Centre for Human Rights from Belgrade organised the conference.

Participants in the conference concluded that funds provided for disabled persons need to be spent more rationally and that this can be achieved by providing them directly to individuals, rather than to institutions. They stressed that research has shown that 25 percent of these funds go to disabled persons, while 75 percent go to institutions because their spending is higher.

The “Guardians of Rights” conference has marked in a way the end of national seminars held in Bosnia,Croatia and Serbia and an attempt to highlight problems in this field through debate.