Bosnia and Herzegovina has yet to conduct a census to map the actual minority situation and develop related statistics on all the different minorities in the country. The most recent census dates back to 1991, when BiH was still a part of the former Yugoslavia. According to current BiH law, the country has 17 minorities. The NGO environment is of a different opinion, though. According to many of those organisations, the number may be as high as 21. Both the BiH Constitution and each of the entities´ separate Constitutions refer only to the members of the three constituent peoples acknowledged; Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats. All other groups, in fact everyone not identifying themselves as belonging to either of the three constituent peoples, are simply being referred to as “others”.

In an attempt to address this discrepancy, HCHR BH has launched an initiative to change the Election Law, to enable members of minority groups to elect people from their own groups as their representatives in Parliament. As of today, HCHR BH´s proposal has not been accepted, despite the fact that the new Law on Protection of Rights of Members of National Minorities was adopted last year. this new piece of legislation also harmonised BiH law in this area with relevant international conventions. So far, though, this new law has not been enforced, both because of lack of political will and an absence of mechanisms to monitor its implementation.

Of all minority groups in BiH, the 80 to 85 000 Romas are the worst off, in terms of material conditions and legal status alike. Romas experience violations of their economic, educational and cultural rights. The Romani language is not at all being used in public, neither for legal nor for administrative purposes. Neither taught in schools nor used in the media the language only has two small radio stations at which it can be heard in public. The Roma´s economic and employment situation remains desperate. Work is currently hard to find in BiH, but Roma´s find more difficult than most to secure regularly paid full-time employment. In all of Sarajevo, Tuzla and Visoko, there are only a few legally employed Romas. Elsewhere, not a single Roma has been given a job of any kind. This pattern also affects the Roma´s health care situation, since entitlement to free medical assistance is restricted to those who can prove that they have a full-time job. As for the processes that have been going on ever since the war came to an end of returning property to their right and original owners, Roma´s once again come out worse off than any other group. A higher percentage of Romas have yet to have their properties returned, and those who have tend to live under conditions way below not only their fellow countrymen, but also the minimum international standards.