Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 2025, publiée 114ème session CIT (2026)

Convention (n° 182) sur les pires formes de travail des enfants, 1999 - Bosnie-Herzégovine (Ratification: 2001)

Articles 3(a) and 7(1) of the Convention. Worst forms of child labour and penalties. Sale and trafficking of children. Following its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s indication that, although there is no knowledge of specific actions taken to combat and prevent the worst forms of child labour in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), preventive efforts are carried out through the work of the State authorities responsible for identifying and prosecuting perpetrators, as well as through governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The Committee notes, from the report of the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings on Bosnia and Herzegovina of 2022 (GRETA report), that approximately 60 per cent of potential trafficking victims identified in Bosnia and Herzegovina were children, though the actual number is likely significantly higher due to challenges in recognition by law enforcement and judicial authorities (para. 203).

The Committee observes from the Annual Report of the Human Rights Ombudsman Institution of 2023 that children continue to constitute a significant proportion of victims of human trafficking, particularly in the context of sexual exploitation, labour exploitation and forced begging. It further observes that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), in its concluding observations of 18 September 2024, expressed concern about reports of trafficking in persons for labour and sexual exploitation and regretted the lack of information on the number of cases of trafficking investigated and prosecuted (CERD/C/BIH/CO/14-15/para. 33). The Committee requests the Government to step up its efforts to ensure that thorough investigations and robust prosecutions of perpetrators of the sale and trafficking of children are carried out. The Committee also requests the Government once again to provide data on the number of investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and penalties imposed related to the sale and trafficking of children.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.