The current Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, has written a letter expressing concern about the placement of children with disabilities in institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to this article from the Sarajevo Times. "I am concerned that children with disabilities continue to be placed in institutions for social care throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina due to the lack of adequate support to the families that would allow them to bring these children up at home, as well as of the necessary conditions to implement a better reconciliation of family and working life," wrote Mijatovic. "Placement of children with disabilities in an institution is often the beginning of a lifetime in institutions, because it prevents children from acquiring the life skills needed to live in the community. It must therefore be an integral part of a general deinstitutionalisation strategy concerning people with disabilities. It is regrettable that resources continue to be invested in renovating or extending the existing institutions, instead of providing support to families, as noted in the 2017 report on Bosnia and Herzegovina by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities."
