BHIGF 2015 (Bosnia and Herzegovina Internet Governance Forum) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

On 1 October 2015 Sarajevo hosted BHIGF 2015, Bosnia and Herzegovina's first national IGF, under the theme 'Internet for All' — 140 registered, 109 attended.
The programme rested on two pillars: an 'ABC's of Internet Governance' primer led by DiploFoundation and a rights session, 'What do you mean by Internet Rights', run by organiser One World Platform, with backing from ICANN, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and RIPE NCC.
In a country with a famously complex post-war governance structure, getting government, the regulator, civil society and academia to one table was a historic first step — a series that, through pause and revival, continues today.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on BHIGF 2015 (Bosnia and Herzegovina Internet Governance Forum) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

Conference at a Glance (from official records)

Item	Detail
Official name	BHIGF 2015 (Bosnia and Herzegovina Internet Governance Forum)
Edition	First edition; UN IGF NRI records state the Bosnia and Herzegovina IGF was launched in 2015
Dates	1 October 2015
Venue	Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (venue name not confirmed in primary sources)
Theme	"Internet for All – Opportunities and Challenges within Internet Governance in Bosnia and Herzegovina"
Participants	109 (109 of 140 registered attended (57 men, 52 women): government 39, academia 35, civil society 23, technical community 10, private sector 6, media 6)
Supporters	ICANN, APC, Council of Europe, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, IGFSA, DiploFoundation, RIPE NCC and CORE Association
Host	Co-organised by One World Platform (a civil-society organisation working on women's rights and digital rights) and the Communications Regulatory Agency (CRA), under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

(See the source list at the end of this article.)

Discussion Digest — from the Session Records

Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.

1. The ABC's of Internet Governance — Building a Common Language

Sessions: Session 'ABC's of Internet Governance', moderated by Vladimir Radunović (DiploFoundation) with Aida Mahmutović (One World Platform)

For first-time participants from government, civil society and academia, the session introduced the fundamentals of Internet governance and the multistakeholder approach to the country in earnest [1][2][3]
Per the GISWatch country report, the BHIGF was inspired by regional initiatives SEEDIG and EuroDIG and by the global IGF, aiming to fill the gap in inter-stakeholder collaboration at home [1][2][3]
Co-moderator Aida Mahmutović would later, as the coordinator in UN NRI records, also drive the 2023 revival — a living thread of continuity in the series [1][2][3]

2. 'What Do You Mean by Internet Rights' — Governance Through a Human-Rights Lens

Sessions: Session 'What do you mean by Internet Rights', moderated by Valentina Pellizzer (One World Platform)

Deniz Yazici (OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media), Silvia Grundmann (Council of Europe Media and Internet Division) and Ljiljana Zurovac (BiH Press Council) framed Internet rights through freedom of expression and media [1]
Technical and academic voices — Smári McCarthy (OCCRP/IMMI), Desiree Milošević (Afilias), Mario Hibert (University of Sarajevo) — matched international experience against domestic reality [1]
Closing remarks stressed contextualising governance topics to national circumstances and integrating media and information literacy into education [1]

3. The 109 in the Room — What the First Edition's Turnout Revealed

Sessions: Across the forum

Government (39) and academia (35) dominated the 109 attendees, while the private sector (6) and media (6) barely showed — leaving business and technical-community buy-in as the standing challenge [1][2]
Gender balance was near parity (48% women, 52% men), fitting for a national IGF driven by a women's-rights organisation [1][2]
Organisers flagged funding and support as a perennial difficulty; the GISWatch report records the search for a self-sustainability model [1][2]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What kind of meeting was this?

A. Bosnia and Herzegovina's first national IGF, co-organised by the NGO One World Platform and the telecoms regulator, with 109 participants. Under 'Internet for All' it ran two sessions: a governance primer and one on Internet rights.

Q. What made it a milestone?

A. In a country with a famously complex post-war administration, it put government, the regulator, civil society and academia at one table for the first time — with ICANN, the Council of Europe and the OSCE among the backers.

Q. Why should I care?

A. It is a template for designing a national IGF's very first edition: build a common vocabulary with a primer session, then dig into your country's own issues through a rights lens.

What Is Bosnia IGF? (for first-time readers)

Bosnia IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.

Why It Matters to You

What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2015 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.