On December 3 at 11: 59 p.m., protests by associations of persons with disabilities in front of the Government building of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina FBiH were held on December 3, due to discontent with the proposed legal solutions and the unfavorable position of persons with disabilities.
Representatives of associations from the FBiH area have nine requests for the Federal Government to improve the status of the population.
Since 2016 the amount of disability benefits and benefits for other people's care and assistance has not been increased, which is a good part of what has been bothering this population. The amount for the 100 percent disabled and other people's care and assistance is 384 BAM. Inflation happened due to the war in Ukraine and other economic changes, so the prices have gone up dramatically and the position of disabled people is not improving at all. There are many single mothers with children who are 100 percent disabled, who are literally living off of that money, and the families whose members are unemployed, no matter how miserable, compensation is a big item in the family budget. This should be taken into account. The Government of FBiH has come up with a proposal on how to help, but it is not satisfactory, because we were not involved in that process, nor were we involved in making a solution that would be good for us. We cannot agree to that now and we ask that the government of FBiH start negotiations with us as soon as possible in order to find a sustainable solution, said Edo Celebic, parent representative and organizer of the protest.
The Government rejected our initiative, they did not even want to consider it. They justify it by the decision of the Constitutional Court by which they have the right to decide on the extent to which they will balance disability benefits with other benefits for war and non-war disabled people. They simply don't have enough understanding for us at this moment. We want to be partners in the government, not some enemies or a foreign body in our own country. We want our status to be improved, and the right address for that is the Government of the FBiH, whatever it is, now or some future ones. This is one of the many parts of the campaign we are launching with the aim of improving the position of people with disabilities. The draft law on material support for people with disabilities that the government submitted to parliament is important for several reasons. One of the things we want to do is that people who are 60, 70, and 80 percent of the disabled are reintroduced into the law. They are now discriminated against. Our protest will begin at 11: 59 p.m. We will send our demands to the government, and we will ask to start negotiations urgently. We will ask for a one-time aid to be paid urgently to people with disabilities, as well as send assistance of 1080 BAM to employees in public institutions, according to the model. Celebic emphasized yesterday that people with disabilities are no less valuable than them.
We don't have two lives to fight with the FBiH government every two years about the rights that belong to us. We just ask that these things be resolved as soon as possible. The government wants to talk to us, but these are not some big demands, we are not asking for anything that is not possible, the only question is whether the government wants to talk to us, according to Klix.ba.