Dissatisfaction with State Strategy Implementation

A meeting of the Supervisory Body that monitors the implementation of the State War Crimes Processing Strategy concluded on Monday that “the bodies involved in war-crimes processing have not respected its decisions”.

Participants in the 21st meeting of the Supervisory Body that monitors the implementation of measures defined under the State War Crimes Processing Strategy, which was adopted in late 2008, concluded that the Strategy implementation was delayed and the distribution of war-crimes cases among state and entity judicial bodies “is unsatisfactory”.

The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the State Strategy for War Crimes Processing in December 2008 with the aim of defining the measures and steps needed in order to complete the most complex and highest-priority war crimes cases in seven years and all other cases within 15 years.

The Supervisory Body for monitoring the implementation of the State Strategy was established at the proposal of the Bosnian Justice Ministry in March 2009.

Although the Strategy stipulates that court practices for war crimes cases should be unified, the Supervisory Body says that this has not been achieved, adding that the Law on the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina should therefore be revised.

“The Supervisory Body is of the opinion that court practices for war crimes cases have not been unified. They are applied differently at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and entity judicial bodies. This is a cause for concern. Hence, the Supervisory Body proposes that the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, HJPC organize a conference at which local and foreign legal experts can attempt to solve this issue,” says one of the Sarajevo meeting conclusions.