Rule of Law in BiH - Bosnia and Herzegovina
Rule of Law in BiH
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is a candidate country for EU membership. EU accession is a merit-based process that requires the candidate countries to deliver on complex reforms in the field of rule of law, democracy, human rights, and economy. Rule of law reforms, being the cornerstone of the accession process, will determine the overall pace of BiH’s progress towards the EU. The Netherlands is known for its strict and firm approach to EU enlargement, especially when it comes to meeting the rule of law criteria and benchmarks. However, also being engaged, the Netherlands aims to support the authorities and civil society in Bosnia and Herzegovina in their attempts to develop a more independent, impartial, and professional judiciary and to strengthen the fight against corruption and organized crime. This will allow BiH to make concrete steps on its EU integration path.
More Robust Prosecutorial Response to Corruption
BiH is faced with endemic corruption, affecting the daily lives of citizens, with the criminal justice system largely failing to address it. By embedding an international legal advisor – Dutch senior prosecutor – at the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office in Sarajevo, this project is looking into ways of enhancing the efficiency and the quality of prosecutorial response to corruption in Canton Sarajevo as well as cooperation with law enforcement agencies.
Transparency and Accountability of the Judiciary through the Lens of Investigative Journalism
This project aims to increase the transparency and the accountability of the judiciary by exposing cases of abuse of position, conflict of interest and breaches of ethnical codes by judicial office holders. Investigative stories published as part of the project look to expose improper and irregular behavior by judges and prosecutors, as well as to raise the awareness amongst the public to demand proper response from the authorities.
Have a look at the data bases on disciplinary sanctions - Disciplinske kazne protiv sudija i tužilaca - CIN - and assets of judges and prosecutors - CIN - Imovina sudija i tužilaca – developed as part of our project.
Owning the Process of Policy Development and Implementation in the Justice Sector
This project directly addresses the challenges in drafting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of justice sector reform frameworks and contributes to local ownership by BiH justice sector institutions while at the same time enabling involvement of civil society sector in justice reforms.