Bosnia and Herzegovina – annual report 2023

Details
Published: September 4, 2023

Strategic Framework

Legal Policy Starting Point

Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was late in starting to transform its legal system due to the war, was granted EU candidate status in December 2022. The difficult process of forming a government after the elections in October 2022 has now been completed. In August 2023, the European Court of Human Rights once again declared the ethnically based electoral system, which dates back to the state structure laid out in the Dayton Peace Agreement, to be discriminatory.

The Republika Srpska entity no longer recognises the decisions of the State Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the High Representative Schmidt. Cooperation with the Republika Srpska is still suspended.

Overall Concept

  • Due to the situation described above, IRZ is focussing its project work on basic and further training for lawyers. IRZ supports events on civil and commercial law at the Centre for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and at the law faculties of the universities of Sarajevo, Mostar and Zenica. It also works closely with the Constitutional Court of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina and with the legal aid organisation Vaša Prava. As part of its activities, which are
  • funded by the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Federal Foreign Office, IRZ also deliberately creates opportunities for members of different ethnic groups to meet in order to counteract ethnic tensions. Embedded in a newly launched EU project, IRZ also supports the “High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council”.

Focus of Activity in 2023

Constitutional Law, Human Rights and their Enforceability

  • Seminar on “Equality and equal rights of women in Bosnia and Herzegovina with regard to the exercise of rights and access to justice”, organised jointly with the non-governmental legal aid organisation Vaša Prava
  • Participation of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Regional Conference of Constitutional Courts on “Protection of the Right to Privacy”, co-organised with the Constitutional Court of Montenegro
  • Participation of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the final conference of the project “Promotion of constitutional com- plaints as the main means of protecting fundamental rights in North Macedonia”, jointly organised with the Constitutional Court of North Macedonia
  • Civil and Commercial Law
  • 11th International Conference “Days of Family Law”, jointly organised with the Faculty of Law of the University “Džemal Bijedić” in Mostar

Administration of Justice

  • Conference with the Federal Chamber of Notaries and the Chamber of Notaries of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the topic “The role of the notary's office in preventing money laundering and combating financing of terrorism – cooperation with other relevant actors”
  • Guest lecture at the Sarajevo Faculty of Law: “Legal education in Germany – theoretical foundations and practice”
  • Guest lecture at the Faculty of Law of the University of Džemal Bijedić in Mostar on the topic “Gender Equality under the ECHR”
  • Popularisation of German law: Workshop to support and network intitutions and individuals working in the field of German law in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the region, including the provision of literature and online licences

Basic and Further Training

  • Seminars with the Centre for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the following topics:
  • European Convention and gender equality
  • Ethics and integrity
  • Court settlement
  • The relationship between European law and the national law of Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Train-the-trainer: Didactics of practice-orientated further training for legal practitioners
  • Involvement of participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina in the regional annual workshop of German-speaking IRZ alumni on the topic of “Current developments in German law” (sponsored by the publishing house C.H. BECK, Munich) and in the regional course on German legal terminology

Project funded by the European Union

EU grant project “EU4Justice” for the implementation of the ongoing judicial reform and the fight against organised crime and corruption

Since December 2022, IRZ has been implementing the EU-funded project “EU4Justice Phase II – Support to Judicial Professionalism and the Fight against Organised Crime and Corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina” as a partner in a consortium with Expertise France as the lead partner and FIIAPP, based in Spain, as an additional partner. The project volume amounts to 4.5 million Euros over a period of three years. IRZ is supporting Component III: “Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption” with one of the three international long-term experts working on site. The EU4Justice project is IRZ‘s first EU project in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

With a view to Bosnia and Herzegovina‘s EU accession, the European Union identified 14 key priorities for reforms, the fulfilment of which is continuously monitored and which represent the prerequisite for a positive recommendation to open accession negotiations. The focus here is on the functioning of the state, democracy and the rule of law, stepping up the fight against organised crime and corruption, improving migration management, strengthening fundamental rights and reforming the public administration. Within these 14 key priorities, those relating to the “rule of law” form a focal point and are therefore also highly relevant in the context of the implementation of the EU4Justice project.

Against this backdrop, the overarching goal of the project is to strengthen the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina and align it with the EU acquis, particularly with a view to improving the independence, quality, accountability and efficiency of the justice sector and combating organised crime and corruption more effectively.

Specifically, the project is mandated to advise the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) as the main beneficiary institution at the centre of the project. As the only self-governing judicial institution of the Bosnian judiciary, the HJPC covers the entire Bosnian judicial structure, which is divided into four jurisdictions (the state of “Bosnia and Herzegovina”, the entities “Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina” and “Republika Srpska” as well as the “District of Brcko”). According to its mandate, the HJPC is to protect the judiciary from political influence, guarantee the proper functioning of all four judicial systems and steer judicial reform efforts. The HJPC is also responsible for the selection, appointment and promotion of all judges and public prosecutors in the four judicial systems, implements all disciplinary measures and deals with ethics and integrity issues relating to judicial personnel. The regulations of the HJPC are applied in all four judicial systems in order to ensure consistent and coherent implementation of judicial policy.

In addition to the HJPC, other project-relevant (indirect) beneficiaries are

  • all courts and public prosecutors‘ offices
  • all parliaments and ministries of justice as well as the judicial commission of the Brčko district
  • training centres and professional associations of judges and public prosecutors
  • law faculties
  • the Agency for Prevention and Coordination of Combating Corruption (APIK) and all other anti-corruption bodies
  • asset management agencies

The project is divided into four components, which are to be implemented over the course of the three-year project term with the following selected project measures:

  • Component I: Strengthening the integrity capacities of the HJPC
  • Component II: Strengthening the capacity of the HJPC and its bodies in areas relevant to the exercise of the HJPC‘s core competences
  • Component III: Supporting coordination and cooperation within the law enforcement chain in the fight against organised crime and the conduct of corruption proceedings
  • Component IV: Establishment of a comprehensive and efficient monitoring mechanism for the justice sector

Outlook

In 2024, IRZ will continue and intensify its project work in Bosnia and Herzegovina in close coordination with its partner institutions. Until the end of the current legislative reform backlog, the focus will be on continuing cooperation with the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Centre for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Sarajevo Faculty of Law and the non-governmental organisation Vaša Prava, as well as with the HJPC as part of the EU4Justice project.