(Sarajevo, October 8th, 2013) Today at the press conference held in Sarajevo, the members of the initiative"Women citizens for Constitutional reform" presented the document "Platform of Women's Priorities for Constitutional Reform and Amendments to the Constitution of Bosnia & Herzegovina from a Gender Perspective". The joint initiative stemmed from the following projects: "Contribution to constitutional reform in BiH – Equal opportunities for women and men in politics”, funded by the Swiss Embassy, and "Woman and law today”, (funded by "Kvinna till Kvinna,” Sweden. Event was attended by representatives different media.
Members of the initiative believe that the reform of the Constitution of BiH must not represent the consensus of political actors only, but also the consensus of all citizens discussing essential issues to define the future framework for a common life. With respect to this goal, the constitutional reform process must equally include women and men.
The members of the Initiative “Women Citizens for Constitutional Reforms” have defined five priorities within the reform process of the Constitution of BiH, and have created gender-sensitive Amendments on this basis.
Svjetlana Marković, for the Helsinki Citizens Assembly Banja Luka, emphasized that in the future period joint campaign will be implemented in the framework of the initiative "Women citizens for Constitutional reform”,  to present priorities and specific proposals within the reform process of the Constitution of BiH.
For the TPO Foundation, Lajla Zaimović Kurtović presented the policy document “The Constitution and Gender: Analysis of Possibilities of Gender Sensitive Reform of the Constitution of BiH". The basic idea of ??the study was to review and to provide insight into the existing initiatives for the constitutional reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to define gender aspects of the constitutional reform and to explore and indicate all initiatives and projects that are aimed at such a context of constitutional reform, and finally to make recommendations for a gender-sensitive reform of

the Constitution of BiH.
Gordana Vidović, for the Budućnost Modriča, presented the priorities and explained the meaning and purpose of each of the five priorities within the reform process of the Constitution of BiH: 1. Application of gender- priorities language in the Constitution of BiH; 2.    Introduction of affirmative action principles in the Constitution of BiH to work towards full gender equality; 3. Amendments to the existing catalog of fundamental rights, to include provisions with respect to common health care services, social and family care; 4. Affirmation of a higher level of judicial and legal protection of human rights and liberties, and 5. Introduction of the principle of the direct democracy in the process of constitutional reform.
Presenting the proposal of gender-sensitive Amendments to the Constitution of BiH, which are in accordance with the specified priorities, Besima Borić for the TPO Foundation, said that the proposed Amendments can be categorized into three groups: “Amendments which propose only linguistic interventions and equal use of word forms in feminine and masculine, 2. Amendments which expand the catalog of rights with political, economic, social, cultural and other rights, especially where there is discrimination against the sexual and gender identity, and 3. Amendments which only apparently go beyond the gender equality and provide a solution for the implementation of the decision Sejdic and Finci and the possibility of direct democracy“. 
TPO Foundation, Helsinki Citizens Assembly Banja Luka and United Women Banja Luka have started the initiative "Women citizens for Constitutional reform”, in cooperation with their partner organizations: Forum žena Bratunac, Budućnost Modriča, Forma F Mostar, Prava za sve Sarajevo, Fondacija bosanskohercegovačka inicijativa žena Sarajevo, Sarajevski otvoreni centar, Fondacija CURE Sarajevo,  Vive žene Tuzla, Udruženje građanki Grahovo, Krajiška suza Sanski Most, Organizacija žena Lara Bijeljina, Glas žene Bihać, Medica Zenica, Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG).