Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as all member states of the United Nations, celebrates June 15 – International Day Against Elderly Violence – World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD).
Today in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the older population of 65 and over makes up 17 percent of the population, and its share in the total population is growing. Since the demographic picture in the world is changing, and the old people in many countries become the majority population, a number of problems that this population faces are also in focus.
The demographic aging process is also present in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in that sense the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) assumes that in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2060 the participation of people aged 65 and over in the total population will be above 30 percent, while in 2010 it was around 15 percent.
In recent years, the number of cases of violence against the elderly is on the rise and especially vulnerable are old women. According to statistics, the violence of children towards parents, but also grandchildren of grandparents and grandmothers, is on the rise. During 2014, there were 1.459 reported cases of violence to cantonal Ministries of Internal Affairs, and a detailed analysis showed that the perpetrators of violence were killed in 1 per cent of cases, and in 13 per cent of cases they were sons. Also, according to a survey by the Gender Center of Federation of BiH from 2014, victims of violence are in six per cent of cases are mothers, in one percent of cases are grandmothers, and in seven per cent of cases are fathers.
Violence against the elderly is an expression of gender discrimination, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is no effective system for the protection of elderly people or coordinated activities of institutions in order to timely detect cases of this type of violence, provide adequate assistance and support, and punish the perpetrators.
In the future, attention needs to be paid to the problems and needs of the elderly. It is also necessary to amend the legal framework and specifically criminalize violence against the elderly, to create policies that respect the contribution of older persons in society, to prevent discrimination and marginalization of the elderly, and start involving older persons in all segments of social life.
