hich led to human rights violations and their consequences;
- establish pattern of crimes;
- establish findings on institutional responsibility;
- establish a credible register on killed people;
- create a platform for public hearings of the victims and other participants in the conflict; and
- publish a public report with recommendations for reparations, memorialization, and institutional reforms.
When looking at the issue of reparations, the Strategy had two distinct approaches:
- Victims centred approach through activities that consider recognition of victims’ suffering, regaining of their dignity and re-socialization through redress for past injustice; and
- Development approach embodied in providing measures for the creation of new legislation, or amending existing laws, establishment of new institutions and building capacity of the current institutions which are mandated to provide services to victims but, also, to people in need in general.
By supporting the adoption of the Framework Law on Victims of Torture and Civilian Victims of War, the Strategy tries to overcome existing discriminatory practices, and lack of sustainability, embodied in different legislative approaches to civilian victims of war and war veterans
The proposed law, which is in line with recommendations of different human rights bodies, defines crucial notions such as civilian victims of war or victims of torture. It also outlines basic rights that victims should enjoy, as well how these rights should be attained.
In terms of rehabilitation, the Strategy develops measures regarding:
- Psychosocial support to victims and people in need through creating a sustainable referral system and strengthening existing institutions mandated to provide services of this kind, as well as amendment of relevant laws and policies;
- Employment of victims and disabled people for the purpose of achieving their economic independence and self-sufficiency;
- Creating programs for psychological strengthening and re-socialization of victims and disabled people through their inclusion in various social, cultural and sport activities.
The Strategy recommends a creative approach regarding protection of individual and collective memory. Namely, it proposes creation of “sites of conscience”, through which emotional and pedagogical aspects of memorials will be secured and strengthened.
The key objectives of the proposed approach are citizens’ participation, pluralism of ideas, protection of democratic values, and fostering culture of dialogue for the purpose of developing societal, institutional and legislative potential for human rights protection, as well as for conflict prevention.
However, in order to define an appropriate approach for BiH the Strategy proposes initiating an open and inclusive consultation process to get recommendations on how to organize such projects. At the end, the Strategy recognizes the efforts of civil society in this field and suggests measures for institutionalization of their programs.
With the purpose of regaining trust towards institutions and conflict prevention, the Strategy defines solutions which refer to vetting public officials and broad institutional transformation.
In terms of vetting, the Strategy calls for adoption of specific framework legislation that would regulate standards and approaches to the whole screening process. However, the Strategy defines neither the scope of vetting nor institutions where this administrative process should be organized, but instead calls for initiating an open and inclusive consultation process.
When it comes to broad institutional transformation, the Strategy specifically provides measures for:
- Building accountability of institutions through redeveloping internal and external monitoring mechanisms and census and identification;
Institutional independence; and
- Building institutions which will be responsive to citizens’ needs.