Establishing Democratic Parliamentary Control of the Armed Forces
Members of BiH Presidency speak to BiH soldiers who are about to depart for a peacekeeping mission in Iraq. |
The OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security provides the basis for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) commitment to legislative oversight of the armed forces. Since 1999, the Parliamentary Section of the Department of Security Co-operation, in co-operation with the Democratisation department, has been the driving force of parliamentary oversight capacity building within the OSCE Mission to BiH.
With OSCE Mission advice and support, both Houses of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly (House of Representatives and House of Peoples) established a Joint Committee on Defence and Security Policy in December 2003. The Committee, which held its first working session in January 2004, provides legislative oversight of the country’s Armed Forces and defence institutions. The Committee has 12 members (six from each House) and fulfils one of the basic OSCE Code of Conduct commitments.
Notably, after establishing the Joint Committee, the Parliamentary Assembly implemented the first institutional benchmark for the country’s advancement toward membership in the Partnership for Peace. Besides the defence sector (Ministry of Defence and, as of 1 January 2006 the state level and only Armed Forces of BiH), the Joint Committee on Defence and Security Policy is responsible for Parliamentary oversight over the following:
The Joint Committee for Security and Defence Policy has begun demonstrating its proficiency in exercising democratic control over the State-level defence and security structures. Since its establishment, more than 30 regular Committee sessions, numerous meetings with ministers and visiting delegations, field visits to BiH institutions, bilateral visits to parliaments and executive structures throughout the region have been conducted. These contributed to bilateral working relations not only with the relevant executive structures in BiH but also with parliamentary counterparts in the wider region.
Furthermore, the intensive work plan implemented with the support of the OSCE Mission to BiH significantly contributed to the development of subject matter expertise among the Committee members. Ultimately, the proactive work of the Joint Committee contributed to the overall security sector reform in BiH. Results of the Committee’s contributions include:
- recently adopted legislation;
- laws that established the BiH Intelligence-Security Agency (OSA);
- BiH defence institutions;
- and strengthened the State police agencies SIPA and SBS.
A second Joint Committee of both Houses - the Joint Security-Intelligence Committee for Oversight over the Intelligence-Security Agency (OSA) - was established based on the previously mentioned legislation on the BiH Intelligence Service. Since its establishment in April 2004, the Committee convened more than 10 regular sessions, oversaw the challenge of forming the OSA and lobbied the Parliamentary Assembly to adopt legislation that would ensure adequate democratic oversight of the Agency.
Intelligence accountability workshop - how to change business as usual. |
To support strengthening parliamentary oversight capabilities, the Mission, in co-operation with the Joint Defence and Security Committee, the Joint Security-Intelligence Committee and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) organised a seminar in June 2006 on best practices for intelligence oversight.
The aim was to present the DCAF Handbook on “Making Intelligence Accountable: Legal Standards and Best Practice for Oversight of Intelligence Agencies“ to the expert community, representatives of executive structures and parliamentarians. Based on the success of the seminar, the OSCE Mission to BiH will increase its support to the Joint Security-Intelligence Committee to further strengthen parliamentary oversight over the BiH OSA.
Both the RS and FBiH entity parliaments also maintain permanent parliamentary oversight committees. Originally, these Defence and Security Committees (two in the bicameral FBiH Parliament, one in the RS National Assembly) exercised democratic political control over the entity ministries of interior and the former entity ministries of defence (closed on 31 December, 2005 in accordance with the Law on Defence of BiH). After the full transfer of defence responsibilities (as of 01 January, 2006), the entity parliamentary committees remain responsible for overseeing their respective entity ministries of interior and their subordinated police forces.
The OSCE Mission will continue to provide support and advice to ensure that adequate legal frameworks for robust parliamentary oversight over the defence, security and intelligence structures in BiH are in place and respected. The Mission’s Security Cooperation programme includes developing projects to guide parliamentary committees in developing an understanding of their roles for providing democratic oversight of the BiH security sector. An integral aspect of this work also focuses on increased co-operation among parliamentary oversight committees between the State and entity parliaments, from which joint meetings on security related topics and visits to BiH institutions will be established. In the wider regional context, bilateral visits to neighbouring states will contribute to transparent bilateral relations in support of regional stability.
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