Transitional Justice - Foundation for a Better Future in BiH
31/03/2010
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Today a conference was held in the BiH Parliament building, where the results of the most recent public opinion survey covering issues related to facing the past were presented. This event called “Transitional Justice – Foundation for a Better Future in BiH” gathered representatives of the authorities and representatives of civil society, and was an opportunity to present the process of drafting the Transitional Justice Strategy, a composition of the expert working group that will be coordinating the drafting process and its methodology. The conference is organized jointly by the BiH Ministry of Justice and BiH Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, and supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The report on the public opinion survey called “The Perspective of Public on Facing the Past and Access to Justice” presents and analyses public opinion on the transitional justice mechanisms and the level of trust in the judicial institutions. The strongest message of the survey is the fact that the recent war past still represents an inseparable part of the present for the majority of the BiH citizens. Citizens are burdened with various interpretations of the war events and the majority of them consider that discussing it with members of other ethnic groups is very important.
Lack of trust in judiciary in BiH is a central finding throughout the report. The majority of citizens does not have confidence in the judicial system and does not believe that it is possible to obtain satisfactory reparations for war victims through local institutions. The finding related to the establishment of the BiH Supreme Court is very interesting and rather surprising; 80% of the participants support the idea of the establishment of such a Court. Furthermore, although such an idea is mainly supported by the other two constituent peoples in BiH, it is rather indicative in the current political climate that almost 70% of the Serb participants also support the idea of the establishment of the BiH Supreme Court.
Apart from this Report, the process of drafting the Strategy on Transitional Justice is presented at the conference. Transitional justice is a relatively new discipline in the theory and practice of the protection of human rights, and encompasses a range of mechanisms (criminal prosecutions, truth-telling initiatives, reparations programs, memorials, institutional reform, etc.) designed with the aim to address past human rights violations and to prevent these violations from happening again in the future.
The BiH Ministry of Justice and BiH Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees are committed to keeping the drafting process open for all civil society groups interested in it. Hence, the Strategy will be drafted by representatives of the authorities but also representatives of civil society who will be active in the working group in charge of coordinating the process. Furthermore, the civil society representatives will participate in the series of expert workshops and consultations designed to determine elements of the future transitional justice strategy and the action plan defining its implementation. The members of the working group from the authorities and civil society as well as preliminary plan of expert workshops and consultations will be announced at the conference. The conference will also cover principal segments of transitional justice in a separate section.
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