Understanding that dealing with the past is a key precondition for conflict prevention and the creation of the stable future for the country, the government of BiH has started the process of creating a state-level Transitional Justice Strategy.
The purpose of the Strategy is to form a sustainable platform for establishing facts about the past, providing redress for injustice and war related trauma, protecting individual and collective memory, reforming and regaining trust in institutions. All together the goal is to develop a “never again” mentality and conflict prevention.
A guiding principle in creation of the Strategy was openness for active participation of all interested citizens, civil society and institutions from all levels of governance, through an open and inclusive consultation process.
The Strategy covers non-judicial transitional justice mechanisms - truth seeking and truth telling, reparations, memorialization and institutional reforms. Together with related strategies - such as the War Crimes Strategy, the Gender Action Plan, and the Dayton Agreement - the Strategy represents a comprehensive plan to combat impunity, provide redress for injustice, establish facts about the past, regain trust of citizens towards institutions and deter future human rights violations.
Recommendations provided in the Transitional Justice Strategy are based on an analysis of transitional justice development in BiH, comparative practice, domestic legislation, international obligations and standards, as well as conclusions from consultations.
Truth seeking and truth telling
In this section, the Strategy defines solutions regarding pressing issues such as solving the fate of the missing persons, forming an investigative institutional mechanism for establishing facts about the past or establishing a credible database of victims of human rights violations and war crimes. At the end, the Strategy recognizes efforts of civil society in this field, and suggests measures for institutionalization of their activities and creation of coalition of civil society organisations for the purposes of advocacy work and continuing the dialogue process.
Solving the fate of missing persons
The Strategy recommends various activities that will contribute to speeding up the process of solving the fate of the missing persons, but which will also contribute to improving the status of the family of the missing persons
Some of the proposed activities are signing bilateral or multilateral agreements with neighbouring states, amending the Law on Missing Persons - particularly in relation to functioning of the Missing Persons Fund, institutional obligation to provide information on missing persons, method of exchange of information, and prevalence in application of the Law on Missing Persons - and amending internal regulations of the Missing Persons Institute (MPI) which will contribute to smoother functioning of the MPI.
A set of specific activities in this area relates to criminal justice, more precisely on amending of the BiH Criminal Procedure Code. For example conditioning plea bargaining with disclosing information about the missing persons and securing testifying of indicted in other process. The Stratefy also recommends amending the BiH Criminal Code with the purpose of prescribing enforced disappearance as an independent criminal act. At the end, the Strategy calls on providing support and building capacity of families of the missing persons and missing persons’ associations.
Investigative institutional mechanism for establishing facts about the past
The Strategy recommends establishing an investigative institutional mechanism for establishing facts about the past, but leaves exactly how it should function, powers it has, or its mandate, open for further consultation. However, participants in consultations for the creation of the S reached consensus that the future investigative body needs to:
- establish facts about the past and provide full descriptions of human rights violations;
- give findings on social, cultural, political and historical causes w