In mylast blog post (Alice in Bosnialand)I contemplated on whether it is possible tolivein Bosnia and Herzegovina. I said it is. Under certain conditions. Latest developments in my dear homeland of absurdity, force me to make a correction. The right question is: - Is it possible toexistin Bosnia and Herzegovina. More specifically, those who were born before February 2013. For those born after, it is not possible.
To be as accurate as possible - they do not exist.
Please read again the last sentence - the babies, they do not exist for this country and its representatives at the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina!?!
To make our reality even more disgusting and twisted, these babies, somehow, in all the depravity of society we live in, although they do not exist - they can die.
And one of them did die. Berina Hamidović is a baby that, before she even „formally“ existed, died.
Let me briefly explain to those who are not yet familiar with the now global cry supporting the passing of the law on personal identification number (JMBG )[1] in Bosnia and world-wide support for the protests that have awoken Sarajevo and other B-H cities throughout the country from a 20 years long and debilitating hibernation.
The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina received a claim from 76 members of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska (one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, author’s comment[2]) stipulating that Article 5 of the Law on personal identification number was not in accordance with the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In my opinion, this is not about caring for legal inconsistencies and making the wrong right - this is about politicizing and being blind to the need of your citizens regardless of which part of the state entity/province/corridor they belong to.
Thus, the Constitutional Court ordered the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina to harmonize the infamous Article 5 of the Law on Personal Identification Number with the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, within six months.
As the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina has not acted in accordance with the said decision, the Constitutional Court issued a decision stating that the provisions of Article 5 of the Law on Personal Identification Number shall be repealed.
The ultimate consequence of this situation, and legal disorder in this area, is that no person who doesn’t have a registered identification number shall exercise any right that is conditional upon possession of this number (the right to have an ID card, passport, health insurance, rights in the field of social protection, etc.).
There you go my dear friends. Welcome to absurdistan, a country where democratically elected politicians don’t care about the fact that babies legally and formally do not exist. Exactly so. These corrupt, ruthless, dishonest creatures don’t give a careabout the death of a baby, Berina Hamidović, who lost her life due to the inability to obtain identification number in time, in order to leave this crazy country to get the medical treatment that could have saved her life. She was condemned to non-existence and so she departed from us.
To be very clear, this story has nothing to do with “oriental pathos” a phrase used by one insignificant morally depraved politician, in the midst of protests for issuing identification numbers in B-H.
This story has to do with humanity. With morality. With common sense. With reality. And with all the babies born in 2013. Babies that do not exist. As baby Berina physically no longer exist. We killed her. We, the citizens who choose these political vermin which, as I already said, don’t give a “hoot” for the citizens who elected them. And them, sirs and madams politicians. Who were not able to adopt a miserable law so that children of my friends could exist in this creature of a state.
Still, something good (if I can even say that) has come out of it. Citizens realized they no longer want to be accomplices to murdering babies in this country. They have gone out into in the streets. So that it how it all began. Protests are everywhere in B-H. Everywhere in Europe. Everywhere in the world. Spontaneous reaction of citizens called Babylution was born. All relevant international media are reporting on protests that started in Sarajevo, and then spread to Mostar, Zenica, Tuzla, Banja Luka …. Children of all ages from the United States, Japan, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Germany, Luxembourg, Croatia and Serbia sang, played, danced and sent messages of support to children in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Global networking and connectivity are possible. For the right reasons. And what is more right than the rights of newborn babies? Citizens of this country said: Enough is enough!
Multitude of parents with their children everyday “drink coffee for personal identification number” in front of the Parliamentary Assembly, thinking that the representatives will hang their heads in front of the parents of the deceased Berina Hamidović, blush with shame and declare the words of compassion swearing that something like shall never happen again. But no. No one has said a word to them. Instead, they dropped down the verbal and nationalist rhetoric (the one they know how to do best) on those parents and kids sitting for days in front of the building where they supposedly work accusing them of disturbing their inner peace and compromising their personal safety (I’m not kidding and I’m not being cynical ). And they decided - to stay in their homes, and to continue receiving their paychecks for (not) working in the Parliament?! That’s right. Runaway parliamentarians. There should be a science fiction movie based on this story. Hordes of rowdy babies haunt the innocent, hard-working, honorable and honest MPs.
And what do these “angry” protesters, who play with their toys in front of the parliament every day bringing flowers and lighting candles for baby Berina, really want? They do not want anything more than what they are entitled by birth. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights begins with this article: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights“. This means that all of us, from the moment of birth, have certain rights that we call human rights. They are guaranteed to every person on the basis of their existence and are inalienable (meaning that no one can be denied). In political vocabulary, the concept of human rights means the totality of all rights to freedom that an individual can claim under its existence as a human being, and that his community should legally guarantee for ethical reasons. In this sense they are ‘natural’, ‘non-state’, ‘native’ or ‘inalienable’ rights, through whose compliance and insurance a political community legitimizes itself.
Not issuing identification numbers, among other things, violates the right to a name, the right to travel, the right to freedom of movement, the right to freedom of choice of residence, place of residence, the right to marriage and more.
I do not think that our politicians have heard that there is the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Bosnia and Herzegovina has taken into its legal order in accordance with the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and ratified it in 1993, which was confirmed by the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Article 7 the Convention clearly states:
1. The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents. 2. States Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.
1. The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.
2. States Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.
Yes. But this is true in a world that is not Bosnia. In a world that is Bosnia, Berina and other babies do not mean anything. And that is why this is a cry for help, a call to be part of the support for JMBG. Part of the support to Babylution. As in previous days were the United States, Nepal and China, India and the whole of Europe, and I cannot remember which part of the world was not. Because, Berina showed everyone that we have not completely lost sympathy for the problems of others, and that together we can do more.
Global networking is necessary. Very much so. For babies. How can it be any other way.
[1] JMBG - Unique Master Citizens Number/ Personal Identification Number
[2] Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country consisting of two main entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and Republic of Srpska (RS) as well as Brcko District with its own local autonomy