We the undersigned, human rights promoters and worried citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Europe, want to voice our concern over the fact that the politicians from Bosnia and Herzegovina will be presiding over the Council of Europe as of May 19, 2015.
The cause of our concern comes from the fact that the local leaders are the ones who have consistently failed to implement the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, thereby impeding Bosnia and Herzegovina’s EU integration efforts, as well as other reforms essential to the development of this country. One example is the failure to comply with the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina (No. 27996/06 and 34836/06 dated December 22, 2009). Under similar circumstances, the judgment in the Zornić case was recently adopted (No. 3681/06 of July 15, 2014) but not implemented. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, within its supervisory function under Article 46, paragraph 2 of the Convention, adopted three interim resolutions concerning the failure to implement the Sejdić and Finci judgment (see document CM/ResDH(2011)291, CM/ResDH(2012)233 and CM/ResDH(2013)259). Failure to comply with these judgments (which is the sole responsibility of local leaders) is a reason in itself for BiH to be excluded from CoE. Instead, those responsible for the current situation will be given an opportunity to preside over the organization whose decisions they do not respect.
At the same time, a number of other issues have placed BiH in a position that can hardly serve as an example of respecting the CoE decisions, a body that will be chaired by BiH politicians as of May 19. When it comes to corruption, the responsible persons adopted decisions by which they partly implemented only 5 out of 22 recommendations of the third round of evaluations of the Group of States against Corruption of the Council of Europe (GRECO) which refer to criminalization of corruption and improvement of legislation on financing the political parties. The deadline to meet these recommendations was March 31, 2015.
In the latest Interim Compliance Report for BiH, GRECO categorized the very low level of compliance with the recommendations as “globally unsatisfactory”. The first report from the third round of evaluations was published back in 2011, and after almost four years, BiH did not manage to meet even one fifth of the recommendations. The fourth round of evaluations will start soon and it will deal with recommendations related to conflict of interest, asset declarations, transparency, etc. – areas in which BiH especially lacks improvement and in which it almost fully derogated the legal framework in the last few years.
Those in position of power, the politicians of this country, are to be blamed for not resolving these issues. Their irresponsibility towards the citizens and international partners, has led the country into one of the most difficult crises unseen since the end of the war in 1995. The citizens of BiH are faced with the collapse of healthcare and education systems; the judiciary is in a serious crisis; the industry that survived the war was devastated by criminal privatizations that left tens of thousands of workers in a very unenviable position. That situation has led to two large waves of protests in the summer of 2013 and spring of 2014, while disenfranchised worker protests have been ongoing for years.
At the same time, those in power increasingly target the media in this country. One of the examples is the public broadcasting service whose operation is now questionable because the authorities have not managed to agree on the importance of digitalization. Pressure is daily increasing on the media in BiH and the international organizations that monitor the freedom of media, including the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, have repeatedly warned about the situation.
We are aware that the decision on the chairmanship of the CoE cannot be abolished now despite all these facts (which are only the tip of the iceberg), however we have to underline our great concern about the fact that a person who publicly glorifies war criminals, and thus openly denies the international courts founded by the UN, will be presiding over this body over the next six months. Given that the OSCE is currently chaired by Serbia, with politicians who also glorify those that have committed war crimes and deny the international court, we believe that Europe is sending a very worrying message to its citizens.
We would like to remind you that Mr. Mladen Bosić had organized a reception for Momčilo Krajišnik, a person convicted of the most serious war crimes committed on the territory of Europe since the World War II. At that public reception, the decisions and conclusions of the international court had been denied, which is unacceptable. It is also unacceptable that political attitudes that contribute to xenophobia, nationalism and fascism, are rewarded, and appointing Mr. Bosić as Chairmen of the CoE is doing precisely this. It is also an absurd situation that the country that violates the basic human rights of its citizens is chairing the Council of Europe.
All the mentioned facts are well known to CoE decision-makers, which is why we find it very disturbing that they made the decision to allow BiH leaders to preside over this body. We believe that in this way the CoE is rewarding all their misdeeds and irresponsibility that would be prosecuted in most member states. At the same time, while rewarding the local political elite, citizens of this country are being punished. Their protests and warnings are not being ignored only by BiH politicians but also by CoE officials who continue to play an important role in BiH.
Gorana Mlinarević
Nidžara Ahmetašević
Emir Hodžić
Aida Spahić
Zoran Ivančić
Nela Porobić Isaković
Goran Bubalo
Hana Obradović
Lejla Huremović
Nermina Trbonja
Refik Hodžić
Tanja Miletić Orućević
Franjo Sarčević
Dražen Crnomat
Sabina Šabić
Srđan Šušnica
Asim Mujkić
Igor Štiks
Centar za ustavne i upravne studije iz Sarajeva
Centar za mlade Kvart, Prijedor
Feministički antimilitaristički kolektiv
Udruženje Tranzicijska Pravda
Sarajevski otvoreni centar
Inicijativa za monitoring evropskih integracija BiH
Udruženje Centar za demokratiju i tranzicionu pravdu
Inicijativa mladih za ljudska prava u Bosni i Hercegovini (YIHR BH)
CODA – Otvoreni univerzitet Sarajevo
Oštra nula, Banjaluka