Bosnia and Herzegovina have committed to ending child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The government submitted a Voluntary National Review at the 2023 High-Level Political Forum; however, there was no mention of child marriage.
Bosnia co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolutions: the 2013 procedural resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2015 resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2017 resolution on recognising the need to address child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian contexts, the 2019 resolution on the consequences of child marriage, the 2021 resolution on child, early and forced marriage in times of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2023 resolution on ending and preventing forced marriage. In 2014, Bosnia also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.
Bosnia co-sponsored the 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.
Bosnia and Herzegovina deposited the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993, which the Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted to recommend the establishment of a minimum age of marriage of 18, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1993, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.
During its 2019 review, the CEDAW Committee recommended Bosnia to continue to raise awareness among Roma communities about the harmful effects of child and forced marriage.
During its 2013 review, the CEDAW Committee raised concerns about the prevalence of child marriage within Roma communities and the lack of sustained, concrete action taken by the government to address this.
In 2019, in the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child concluding observation, the Committee recommended Bosnia to amend its family laws at the entity and district levels to remove all exceptions that allow marriage under the age of 18.
In 2019, the Human Rights Committee noted that the practices of arranged marriages and child trafficking amongst Roma children are prevalent within their community.
During its 2014 Universal Periodic Review, Bosnia and Herzegovina agreed to examine recommendations to reduce child marriage, including by addressing significant school drop-out rates among Roma children and prosecuting people found trafficking ethnic girls into marriage.
Bosnia has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (known as the Istanbul Convention), which considers forced marriage a serious form of violence against women and girls, and legally binds state parties to criminalise the intentional conduct of forcing an adult or child into a marriage.