Bosnia and Herzegovina – annual report 2024

Details
Published: September 4, 2025

Strategic Framework

Legal Policy Starting Point

Bosnia and Herzegovina, which began the transformation of its legal system late due to the war, has a complex state structure, the core of which is formed by the two so-called entities Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina (currently the German Christian Schmidt) continues to oversee the implementation of the civilian aspects of the Dayton Peace Agreement. The country was granted EU candidate status only in December 2022. In March 2024, the EU agreed to open accession negotiations. In the wake of the war in Ukraine, pro-Russian and separatist statements and actions are on the rise in the Republika Srpska.

Overall Concept

IRZ places the priorities of its project work, which is funded by the BMJV and the Federal Foreign Office, on the training and further education of legal professionals, deliberately creating opportunities for members of different ethnic groups to meet in order to counteract ethnic tensions. In this context, IRZ supports events on Civil and Commercial law at the Centre for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and cooperates with the Constitutional Court of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the legal aid organisation Vaša Prava in the area of human rights. Embedded in two EU projects, IRZ also supports the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council on the one hand and the Ministry of Security on the other. Cooperation with the Republika Srpska is still suspended due to the circumstances described above.

Focus of Activity in 2024

Constitutional Law, Human Rights and their Enforceability

  • Regional Conference “Strengthening Human Rights legal protection by the Constitutional Courts in Environmental and Climate Protection”, jointly organised with the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Tuzla
  • Seminar on “Sexualised violence against women, especially as victims of war and against refugee women”, organised jointly with the Legal Aid organisation Vaša Prava in Sarajevo

Civil und Commercial Law

  • Series of seminars in Sarajevo on the acceleration of civil proceedings with the Centre for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the following topics:
    • Relationship between European law and the national law of Bosnia and Herzegovina
    • Court settlement as an alternative means of dispute resolution
    • Cancellation of employment contracts
    • Current issues of civil procedure law, in particular the consideration of evidence
    • International sales contracts

Administration of Justice

  • Regional online workshop to support and network institutions and individuals active in the field of German law with the participation of the Sarajevo Faculty of Law, including the provision of literature and online licences

Basic and Further Training

  • Regional exchange of experience on the topics “Improvement and modernisation of legal education”, “Practice-oriented legal didactics” and “Monitoring and Evaluation”, jointly organised with the Centre for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo
  • Participation 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” in Belgrade and in two regional courses in hybrid format (online course with in-class workshop in Novi Sad) on the introduction to German law and German legal language

Projects 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 IV: “Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption” with one of the three international Long-term experts working on site.

The overall objective of the project is to strengthen the Rule of Law in Bosnia and Herzegovina and align it with the EU acquis, in particular with a view to improving the independence, quality, accountability and efficiency of the justice sector as well as combating organised crime and corruption more effectively. The High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (hereinafter referred to as the HJPC) is the main beneficiary institution at the centre of the project. As the only self-governing judicial institution in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the HJPC covers the entire judicial structure in the country, which is divided into four jurisdictions (Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and the Brčko District). According to its mandate, the HJPC is tasked with protecting the judiciary from political influence, guaranteeing the proper functioning of all four judicial systems and steering 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.

EU Grant Project “EU4Police“

Since September 2024, IRZ has been implementing the “EUPA4BiH – ­European Union Police Assistance for Bosnia and Herzegovina” (also known as EU4Police) project as a partner in a consortium led by CILC (Netherlands), Civipol (France), FIIAPP (Spain) and CPMA (Lithuania).

The project volume amounts to ten million euros over a period of four and a half years. The IRZ is supporting the project with two international long-term experts in the field of organised crime/financial crime.

The main beneficiary institution is the Ministry of Security. The project is focussed on security and investigation topics and will work closely with the above-mentioned EU project due to many thematic overlaps.

The project objectives can be summarised as follows:

  • Increase the efficiency of institutions involved in the fight against transnational organised crime, corruption, drugs, money laundering, cybercrime, trafficking in human beings, terrorism, radicalisation, violent extremism and corruption and ensure better cooperation between institutions,
  • Improve data collection, data sharing and data protection in line with EU standards and best practices,
  • Improving governance standards, anchoring stability and progress towards EU membership, better identifying and responding to threats and strengthening capacities to prevent and combat criminal offences.

Outlook

In 2025, IRZ will continue and intensify its project work in Bosnia and Herzegovina in close coordination with its partner institutions and, as part of the two EU projects, also with the EU Delegation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (as the contracting institution). The focus will be on improving the efficiency and quality of the judiciary through events with the Centre for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the area of human rights through the continuation of the cooperation with the State Constitutional Court and the non-governmental organisations Vaša Prava.