Republica Srpska, October 22, 2009
Human Rights in Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska Urges EU and Council of Europe to Back New Human Rights Body
Nearly 200 persons, including Members of Parliament and two sitting Presidents, removed from office and banned by High Representative without any form of due process. RS seeks independent forum as remedy for human rights violations.
October 8, 2009
The Republika Srpska (RS) on Wednesday appealed for the European Union and the Council of Europe to support the establishment of an independent forum to remedy human rights violations by the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
For more than a decade, the High Representative has been summarily removing officials in BiH from public office and banning them indefinitely from holding public employment. The High Representative has removed nearly 200 citizens of BiH, including democratically elected presidents, legislators, mayors, and governors, as well as judges, police officials, and public company executives. The High Representative has also taken actions against citizens that deny other rights, such as blocking bank accounts and seizing travel documents indefinitely.
Despite the severe harm to these individuals' livelihoods and reputations, the High Representative has permitted them no hearings, no opportunity to challenge the allegations underpinning the sanctions, and no recourse to appeal. The processes by which the High Representative determines these decrees are conducted behind closed doors without any notion of transparency or rule of law.
The High Representative's removals and bans, lacking even the most rudimentary form of due process, manifestly violate the sanctioned individuals' human rights as guaranteed in the BiH Constitution and human rights agreements to which BiH is a party. These decrees have continued despite their condemnation by the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, the Venice Commission, the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, and the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights.
Moreover, the High Representative has ordered the institutions and courts of BiH not to review its actions or provide any remedy for BiH citizens for loss or injury flowing from implementation of the High Representative's decisions. The High Representative has also asserted before the European Court of Human Rights -- and the Court has ruled -- that the Court lacks jurisdiction to hear claims arising from the High Representative's actions and that its actions do not engage the responsibility of BiH or other states.
In separate letters Wednesday to Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg, RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik urged them to work to establish an independent international commission of respected legal experts to give individuals who have been removed from their positions a forum to seek redress. The commission's mandate would be to determine whether the High Representative's actions violated applicable human rights law and, in case of violations, to determine the extent of any resulting loss or injury. Prime Minister Dodik also provided to Foreign Minister Bildt and Commissioner Hammarberg a paper setting forth the issue in greater detail.
It is a cherished principle in democratic societies that every right requires a legal remedy. A forum for the citizens of BiH whose rights the High Representative has breached would give them the remedy they deserve and the rule of law demands.
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