Steps taken by the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to investigate and bring to justice those responsible for war crimes remain insufficient due to numerous obstacles to effective prosecution. However, despite criticism of the domestic authorities’ handling of war crimes cases, some courts have made conscientious efforts to bring those responsible to justice.

OSCE has agreed to monitor and report on war crimes trials processed domestically under ICTY’s Rule 11 bis proceedings

With an increasing number of cases proceeding domestically, particularly at the entity (cantonal and district) level, Mission’s monitoring of war crimes cases has taken on greater importance.

Approximately 550 cases have been referred back to the authorities under the Rules of the Road Procedure for prosecution before the domestic courts under the so called category A - cases in which there is sufficient evidence to prosecute. Aside from these cases, BiH prosecutors need to tackle thousands other criminal charges related to war crimes filed with various law enforcement agencies as well their own offices. In order to deal with such volume of investigations the BiH Chief Prosecutor is working on the National Strategy for Prosecution of War Crimes. The Mission has been providing expert and technical assistance to the Office of the State Prosecutor to assist in this effort.

However, monitoring domestic war crimes cases at entity level, and contributions to legislative reform and regional co-operation remain the OSCE’s priorities. In March 2005, the Mission issued a report on its monitoring findings from war crimes trials before the courts in BiH entitled “Progress and Obstacles”. Through its monitoring, the OSCE seeks to verify that prosecutions of war crimes in BiH are conducted impartially, effectively and in accordance with international human rights and humanitarian law standards.

With the establishment of a specialised War Crimes Chamber within the BiH State Court, the capacity of the domestic justice system to prosecute war crimes has been increased. However, the need for it to be carefully scrutinized still remains. The precise number of cases to be tried before this Chamber has yet to be determined. However, it has been confirmed by the BiH Prosecutor’s Office that the Chamber will only hear “highly sensitive” cases.

In the context of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Completion Strategy, a number of cases have been transferred from The Hague to the BiH State Court. At the request of the ICTY Prosecutor and in line with its mandate, the OSCE has agreed to monitor and report on war crimes trials processed domestically under ICTY’s Rule 11 bis proceedings. The 11 bis cases will truly be a test of the country’s judicial system, to see if it is indeed up to European standards.

One of this Mission’s objectives, which it shares with the larger international community as a whole, is to assist BiH to establish an impartial and independent judiciary that upholds respect for human rights standards and the rule of law. By providing a means of assessing progress toward achieving this goal, observation and reporting on the prosecution of war crimes cases plays an important role in this essential process – one that is in the interest both of justice and of the future of BiH.

To maximise the impact of its findings and recommendations, the OSCE shares these reports, when appropriate, with actors in the domestic justice system. It also provides feedback and undertakes advocacy actions to resolve any observed problems.

Pioneering Judicial Outreach in War Crimes Prosecutions

Whilst the primary objective of the judiciary is ending impunity thought establishment of individual criminal responsibility for war crimes, they should also contribute to the establishment of the truth about the past events in BiH. By doing so, they will be able to contribute to a meaningful process of reconciliation and reduction of a possibility for the BiH society to return to conflict.

Underlining importance of witness testimonies in war crimes trials - Roundtable in Tuzla

Currently, BiH judiciary at entity level does not have a sound outreach programme and provision of essential information to the public is left mainly to the media. As this could allow for political exploitation of the topic and could therefore manipulate the public, the Mission sees the development of an outreach programme for the BiH prosecutors’ offices as essential.

With this in mind, the Mission decided to support the BiH judiciary in reaching out to the communities in BiH and providing accurate and comprehensive information about their work on war crimes cases.

In mid 2006, the Mission began implementing a pilot project with the Tuzla and Banja Luka Chief War Crimes Prosecutors. Central to the public information campaign component of this Project is the Documentary Film “Justice Requires Outreach” produced in co-operation with the XY Productions Sarajevo and the Film Director Refik Hodzic.

Since NGOs can be very valuable partners in educating communities about the work of the judiciary, the Mission has decided to finance outreach projects of three local organizations (Viva Zene from Tuzla, Izvor from Prijedor, and the Association of the Missing Persons from Zvornik). Under these projects the NGOs provided psychological support to witnesses, informed witnesses on legal and administrative procedures relating to witness testimonies, facilitated contacts between witnesses and the judiciary, organised public information campaigns at regional level on the importance of witnesses’ testimonies and information for criminal investigations in war crimes cases.

Local NGOs have also been engaged in putting together outreach materials available to organizations’ members and the community. They will also organize roundtables to further inform and educate about the prosecution of war crimes in communities.

The courts cannot do the job on their own, so it is hoped that NGOs will enhance the work of the Outreach Programme through their own projects.