Events of 2011
The continuing political crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina impeded necessary human rights reforms, including the constitutional changes needed to end discriminatory restrictions on Jews and Roma holding political office. Roma in particular remain extremely vulnerable and subject to widespread discrimination. More than 15 years after being indicted for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic faced trial in the Hague. Returns of refugees and displaced persons continued to dwindle with little or no progress on durable solutions, including for Roma refugees from Kosovo.
Ethnic and Religious Discrimination
Bosnia again failed to implement a 2009 European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruling (the Sejdic and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina case) ordering the country to amend its constitution to eliminate ethnic discrimination in the national tri-partite presidency and House of Peoples. Currently only members of the three main ethnic groups (Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats) may stand for election. Political gridlock, including failure to form a national government one year after general elections, meant the parliamentary body charged with proposing constitutional amendments had to yet to be formed and a similar ministerial-level body had yet to meet at this writing.
Although more Roma children were enrolled in primary and secondary education in 2011, they still attend school at lower rates than their peers. In addition, the 99 percent unemployment rate for Roma in Bosnia in 2011 meant even those who completed school had virtually no chance of finding work. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), up to 10 percent of Roma are not on the public registry in Bosnia, impeding their access topublic services. Many Roma remained unable to access needed health care services due to registration restrictions, and most Roma remained in informal settlements with poor housing.
More than 100 Roma in Mostar, many elderly or children, faced imminent forced eviction in November from their homes in a settlement to make room for a housing project sponsored by the city and the Ministry of Human Rights for 18 other Roma families. At this writing the authorities had failed to identify alternative housing for those facing eviction, some of whom were moved in late 2010 from another location in Mostar.
War Crimes Accountability
On May 31, 2011, Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic was extradited to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) (see Serbia chapter). Mladic made his first appearance in court in June, pleading not guilty to 11 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, including the massacre of up to 8,000 Bosnian men and boys from Srebrenica in July 1995 and the siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995. In October the trial member rejected a request from the prosecutor to split the charges into two trials and proceed with the Srebrenica charges first to ensure efficiency and justice for victims. The trial member concluded the request would “prejudice the accused and render the trials less manageable.”
The trial of Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic, charged with many of the same crimes as Mladic, continued at the ICTY in 2011, with some delays due to disputes between his legal team and the prosecutor’s office about delayed disclosure of evidence to the defense.
In September Momcilo Perisic, former Yugoslav army chief of staff, was convicted at the ICTY of war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, including involvement in the Srebrenica massacre. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Between September 2010 and 2011, the domestic War Crimes Chamber in Bosnia reached final verdicts in 24 cases, raising the total number of completed cases to 75.
Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons
The adoption of a revised strategy in 2010 to support the return of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) did little to arrest the declining number of such returns. According to UNHCR only 1