Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina

Background

The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Mission) has concentrated its efforts on non-policing areas of politico-military assistance as the explicit mandate for policing efforts was held initially by IPTF, mandated by Annex 11 of the Dayton Peace Agreement, and later by EUPM. Currently, the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is the leading international organization supporting BiH law enforcement agencies, including border police.

Although the Mission does not have a dedicated law enforcement unit, it does provide support to law enforcement bodies in BiH through its core programmatic work carried out by the Department of Security Co-operation in the politico-military sphere, and by the Human Dimension Department’s thematic programme sections. It endeavours to include support for law enforcement related issues within the framework of its mandate and with a view to efficient and effective use of the resources available to the Mission, ensuring that it is not duplicating the efforts of other international support being provided, while at the same time working to reinforce OSCE principles in security sector governance.

Promoting OSCE Principles in Police Institutions

As part of its efforts to disseminate knowledge on the OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security and with the aim to foster professionalism and higher standards in police affairs in BiH, the Mission, on 14-15 May, organized a specialized seminar on the Code of Conduct for 20 representatives of police education institutions throughout BiH, held on Vlasic mountain. The primary objective was to promote the Code of Conduct and its principles among police educators and to explore with them how training on this important OSCE document may be included in the standard curriculum of training and education of police.

Training Police on BiH Security Policy

Through its engagement over several years in co- organizing the State programme of education on the national security policy, the Mission supported training for law enforcement agency personnel on security policy in general, and on specialized security topics. In 2013, emphasis was placed on educating officials across various institutions in proper handling of classified information. On 23-24 April, the Mission supported a training course for 50 members of the BiH Directorate for the Coordination of Police Bodies and INTERPOL BiH in Banja Luka. Proper handling of classified information by all those who have access to it is a requirement for implementation of bilateral security agreements.

Weapons Management

In 2013, the Mission continued supporting the establishment of an initiative to conduct a nationwide campaign for collection of illegally held weapons, led by the UNDP together with the ministries of interior of the entities and cantonal and Brþko District Police. Amnesty legislation required to carry out the campaign was already in place in the Republika Srpska (RS) and in five cantons of the Federation of BiH (FBiH), and so the campaign was begun in most of the country. The Mission was involved in advocacy for the adoption of amnesty legislation at the FBiH entity level, which was achieved in December 2013, allowing the remaining five cantons without amnesty legislation to join the campaign in 2014. The work of the police is at the forefront for raising awareness of the initiative and for carrying out the

actual collection work and proper processing of weapons collected through registration or destruction.

In addition to this, on 29-30 October, the Mission gathered in Konjic a ten-member team that included representatives of the Brþko District Police and entity Ministries of Interior to prepare a draft law on Marking of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) and Ammunition.

The aim was to bring legislation in line with the recommendations of the OSCE Document on SALW and the UN Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing and Trade of Firearms, and improve procedures for marking of weapons produced in or traded through the country.

Consultations with the relevant Ministries and industry on the draft were to be conducted, and by-laws necessitated by this proposed legislation to be identified.

Border Control

On 22-23 April, a BiH Council of Ministers Working Group drafting session for amendments to the Law on Border Control of BiH was held, with support of the Mission. The 11-member team, which included representatives of the Border Police, drafted amendments with the aim of harmonizing the BiH border management system with EU standards and the OSCE Border Security Concept, for a whole-of-government approach to border security issues.

These amendments to the Law on Border Control were then forwarded into parliamentary procedure with adoption expected in 2014.

Counter-Terrorism

The Mission monitored progress on the implementation of the country’s counter-terrorism strategy through its observer status on the BiH Council of Ministers Monitoring Body on the Implementation of the Strategy for the Prevention of and Fight Against Terrorism. Agencies in the country involved in countering terrorism include the State Investigation and Protection Agency, Border Police, State Intelligence-Security Agency, Armed Forces of BiH, the two entities’ Ministries of Interior and Brþko District Police. These agencies have developed Action Plans for their operations aimed at implementing the Strategy. The term of validity of the current Strategy (2010-2013) expired at the end of 2013. Therefore, the development of an updated national strategy was an urgent task that the Mission was going to participate in, if requested by the BiH authorities. The new strategy was expected to have a component for prevention activities, to include addressing violent extremism.

Trafficking in Human Beings

Through its justice sector monitoring programme, the Mission monitored all trafficking trials in BiH and the provision of assistance to victims by key service providers. As a result of the Mission’s continued advocacy, authorities adopted amendments to THB-related provisions in the RS and Brþko District criminal codes in line with international standards. Once amendments currently in Parliamentary procedure are enacted in the FBiH, the BiH Parliament is then expected to pass similar legislation at the State level. Concurrent to its work on legislative amendments, the Mission’s advocacy resulted in the Government’s commitment to re-instate local referral mechanisms. The Mission continued providing technical and logistical support through its field offices to the four Regional Monitoring Teams, which were formed to more effectively co-ordinate the provision of local level assistance.

The Mission was engaged in capacity building of criminal justice actors on the novelties in criminal legislation and their application, the implementation of the comprehensive BiH Strategy and Action Plan 2013 - 2015, providing on-going support to the State Co-ordinator

and Section for Combating THB as well as to the Ministry of Security in drafting a new Rulebook on Protection of Foreign Victims of Trafficking.

Hate Crimes

Since 2008, the Mission has, as part of its justice sector and reform programme, monitored the occurrence of bias-motivated and hate-related incidents and responses to such by law enforcement officials, judicial authorities and government authorities at both local and State levels. In the past, the Mission has been engaged in the training of police and law enforcement officials through ODIHR’s ‘Law Enforcement Officer’s Programme’ (LEOP).

Through it, 22 police officials from both the RS and the FBiH attended a five-day training on how to identify and investigate hate crimes. A Memorandum of Agreement containing important commitments regarding the strengthening of law enforcement officers’ efforts and training in responding to hate crimes was also signed during this period between the BiH Ministry of Security and ODIHR. As a follow-up to the above, a working group was established in 2010 with the purpose of facilitating the incorporation of specialized training modules on hate crimes within the curricula of both entities’ Police Academies in BiH. The working group was to be led by the National Point of Contact on Hate Crimes. In 2013, the FBiH Police Academy adopted a training curriculum on hate crimes which was going to be implemented in co-operation with the Mission in 2014.

The Mission has also supported the strengthening of the domestic legal framework in relation to the hate-related provisions in the entities’ Criminal Codes. In addition to the Mission’s advocacy efforts in 2010 to amend the RS and Brþko Criminal Codes, the Mission was also pleased to see the recent adoption of its comments to the RS Criminal Code in relation to the hate crime provisions, by the RSNA. At the end of 2013, the Mission worked to assess recent developments in the FBiH Parliament in order to take the appropriate advocacy measures.

The Mission closely co-operated with a local NGO in implementing a training course for police on hate crimes and organized an event on the prosecution of hate crimes in which police and other competent authorities took part. At both events, the Mission presented the concept of hate crimes and the legal framework applicable across BiH. The Mission’s Tackling Hate Crimes report and Understanding Hate Crimes booklet were distributed to participants for information and future reference. Other preparatory activities for including hate crimes into police training for cadets and in-service police were conducted by the Mission in 2013. In November and December 2013, the Mission met with the entity Police Academy Directors, who both agreed, in principle, to co-operate in efforts to ensure that hate crimes training is included.

War Crimes Investigations

To address the estimated backlog of 1,200 war crimes cases in BiH, as part of the War Crimes Processing extra-budgetary project, the Mission developed an investigation manual for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in BiH. The manual will be a sustainable tool for training BiH police inspectors in war crimes investigations. The training programme for police has not previously included war crimes specific components and the 300 page manual was expected to fill a critical void in this area. The manual was developed in partnership with the FBiH and RS police academies, and follow-up trainings were planned to be held in partnership with the academies. The training was to target all police inspectors assigned to war crimes investigations and police academy trainers with the aim of developing a self-sustainable training programme independently run by the police academies as part of basic training.

Police Holding Facilities

In response to a request of the Director of the RS Police, the Mission carried out an assessment of pre-trial detention facilities at police stations in ten locations throughout the RS and provided recommendations for improvement of conditions to meet minimum international standards.

BiH ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) on 24 October 2008, which provides specifically for the establishment of a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) to ensure that no torture takes place in any holding facilities, including detention centres and prisons. In 2009, the Mission took the lead in mobilizing relevant BiH institutions to put this mechanism into place by organizing a conference for competent domestic institutions with experts from the UN SPT and APT. In 2010, as per the request for assistance addressed by the BiH Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees (MHRR), the Mission engaged an expert to make a needs assessment of the required human, technical and financial resources required to establish an NPM in BiH, in line with OPCAT requirements. In 2011, the Mission organized a follow-up meeting again engaging the SPT. In 2012, the Mission advised the MHRR to adopt the “Ombudsmen plus” (NPM to be established as a part of the BiH Ombudsman office) model as most cost effective, basing its advice on a 2010 needs assessment. This proposal was accepted by the MHRR who created a working group to draft the necessary legal framework for establishing an NPM in BiH. The Mission appointed a representative to the working group to provide expert advice. In 2013, this working group met three times. One meeting was financially supported by the Mission to include engagement of an SPT expert again. The draft law was sent to necessary procedure involving competent governmental committees and ministries in September 2013; however it failed to be supported. The key reason for lack of support was that the envisaged legal framework foresees yet another piece of State level legislation, which the RS has opposed. The other issue was budgeting for its implementation. Therefore, the MHRR drafted amendments to the Law on BiH Ombudsman to provide legal grounds for the creation of an NPM which were expected to be approved by the BiH Council of Ministers in 2014. Furthermore amendments to the BiH Law on the Execution of Criminal Sanctions were prepared to enable the NPM, once established, to conduct visits to holding facilities at the State level. The MHRR has taken full lead in the process and the Mission remained available to assist upon request.

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