by Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (hCa) Tuzla – Youth Resource Center Tuzla

June 2013

Case: All children born in B&H after 12th February this year don’t have possibility to obtain JMBG, and thus can’t obtain any documents. Problem occurred after constitutional court B&H revoked the law on JMBG. JMBG system was conceived in the early 1980 in EX Yugoslavia, in order to simplify administrative affairs. Basic of this system is simple: there is a need to have unique and unrepeatable number for each citizen, this way there would be no misunderstanding about person’s identity (day, month – two numbers, year of birth – three numbers, code of city/republic/ or region – two numbers, gender – two numbers and control number – from two numbers). On 12th February this year constitutional court B&H decided that these JMBG numbers need to be adjusted according to the constitution. This doesn’t concerns Republic of Srpska and Sarajevo canton, they are issuing temporary numbers, it concerns the rest of the B&H, two girls badly sick couldn’t receive passport to go for medical treatment abroad.

See full PDF version: Bosnia & Herzegovina Chronicle 3: JMBG – Cause or consequence of long term political instability in B&H?