Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina has warned that the authorities in Bosnia's Republika Srpska entity have “in complete secrecy” established the proposal of law on a special register and publicity of the work of non-profit organisations and sent it to further procedure in the entity parliament, thus “violating the rules and procedures for adoption of the law.”

The information was confirmed for media following an inquiry, with conflicting information about the session when the law proposal was supposedly determined.

According to TI BiH, the government told media that the document was determined in a session on March 21, 2023, just before the expiration of the six-month period that the government had to submit the law in the form of the proposal.

“However, in the announced agenda of this session, as well as in the government's information on the session, the adoption of this proposal was not mentioned anywhere, which casts doubt on the very method of determining the proposal,” said TI BiH.

Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as all relevant international and local associations, previously warned about the harm and consequences of the adoption of this law, “which directly targets associations that are financed from abroad, that is, those that are not under the control of local authorities and limits their field of activity.”

“Nevertheless, the Government of the RS completely ignored all warnings, and the law, which drastically encroaches on basic human rights, is sent into the procedure only a few days after the European Union gave its consent to open negotiations for BiH, emphasising the freedom of action of civil society as one of the key priorities that BiH must fulfill in order to officially start negotiations with the EU. At the same time, the National Assembly of Republika Srpska hypocritically makes conclusions that demand ‘acceleration of the European path’, while in parallel it goes to the adoption of laws that are in complete opposition to this same European path,” the TI BiH said, noting that the text of the law proposal is still not available in the public.

TI BiH called on the National Assembly members to use a last opportunity and reject this proposal by voting against the law, “which is not only the result of problematic procedures and endangers the proclaimed ‘European path’ but, most importantly, directly violates the basic human rights and freedoms of citizens in Republika Srpska, which the regime in Republika Srpska continues to rank among sinister repressive and authoritarian regimes that openly persecute dissenters.”