The Registrar for the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Emira Hodžić, and Head of the TRIAL International Office in BiH, Selma Korjenić, on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina between the Court of BiH and TRIAL International Office in BiH.
The Memorandum established cooperation with the aim of measuring success indicators, and collecting feed-back about how the victims/survivors, who appear as witnesses in war-related sexual violence cases, see and experience judicial proceedings, and to what extent they are satisfied with trial preparation.
The Witness Support Section of the Court of BiH will keep statistical data in relation to the questions that will be posed to the witnesses clearly and unambiguously, in the form of survey forms/questionnaires. The survey forms consist of five questions related to property/compensation claims in criminal proceedings, and five questions related to stigmatization and stereotypes during trial.
Activities related to the implementation of the objectives of the Memorandum will begin right after the signing, and both signatories have undertaken to proceed in good faith and in a transparent manner in achieving the objectives of cooperation, mindful of data confidentiality. In accordance with the Memorandum, the Court of BiH will make sure that the questionnaires are not too much of a burden for the victims-witnesses, with particular attention being paid to the protection of their personal details.
The Court of BiH will timely provide TRIAL International with all relevant information and make available relevant statistics regarding the survey results, all with the aim of enhancing Court’s cooperation with the community and non-governmental sector, as well as providing protection and assistance to victims of war-related rape and other forms of sexual violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of improving their position and respect for their human rights on international and domestic levels.
