report on Bolivia. Among its recommendations, the Committee urged Bolivia to improve and adapt mechanisms and proceedings to ensure access to justice for people with disabilities and to abolish the practice of sterilizing people with disabilities without their free, prior and informed consent. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY In June, peaceful protests by people with disabilities demanding a monthly disability allowance were suppressed by police using tear gas. In August, allegations of excessive use of force to repress the protests were reported to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which urged the Bolivian authorities to carry out a thorough and impartial investigation into the incident. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS In March, leaders of Amazonian Indigenous Peoples and the Centre for Documentation and Information of Bolivia (CEDIB) denounced the failure to ensure prior, free and informed consent for oil exploration projects taking place on Indigenous territories. RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE In May, the lower house of the Congress passed the Gender Identity Law, which established administrative procedures for transgender people over 18 to legally change their name, sex and image data on official documents. In September, the Ombudsman endorsed a bill that would allow same-sex civil marriage and enable LGBTI people to enjoy the same health care and social security rights and guarantees as other couples. The bill was due to be submitted to the Plurinational Legislative Assembly later in the year. SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS In August, the Ministry of Health and the University of San Andrés launched the first Observatory of Maternal and Neonatal Mortality to monitor and reduce the high Amnesty International Report 2016/17 rates of maternal and infant mortality in the country. The Ministry of Health also announced the development of a bill to guarantee timely access to family planning. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION In July, a petition that two articles of the Law Granting Legal Personality and its regulations were unconstitutional was rejected by the Constitutional Court. The petition had been presented by the Ombudsman on the grounds that the law could violate the right to freedom of association to establish NGOs or foundations. In October, four NGOs filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding the law. PRISON CONDITIONS In June, the Ombudsman published a report highlighting the serious problem of overcrowding and corruption in the penitentiary system and persistent human rights violations against those deprived of their liberty. BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Bosnia and Herzegovina Head of state: Rotating presidency – Bakir Izetbegović, Dragan Čović, Mladen Ivanić Head of government: Denis Zvizdić Despite the adoption of progressive new anti-discrimination legislation, vulnerable minorities faced widespread discrimination. Threats and attacks against journalists and media freedom continued. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) issued verdicts in relation to crimes committed during the 1992-1995 conflict; at the domestic level, access to justice and reparations for civilian victims of war remained limited. 87