Mayoral, parliamentary, and ministerial chairs. Without any legal obstacles in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), those convicted of war crimes who have served prison sentences can sit in them.
The Election Law of BiH does not prohibit persons who have been convicted of war crimes before foreign and domestic courts to be candidates in elections or to be appointed to public positions.
An additional problem in BiH is the fact that war crimes verdicts handed down by the Hague Tribunal in recent years are not recorded in the criminal records of BiH.
This means that Hague convicts are not in the criminal registers of police and judicial institutions in BiH.
How will the High Representative react?
The abolition of this practice, which is in force in post-war BiH, was announced by High Representative Christian Schmidt, saying that he has prepared a set of decisions on banning the election and appointment of convicted war criminals to public positions, as well as rewarding them.
On September 20th, Schmidt appealed to BiH authorities to make such decisions themselves, or else he will use the Bonn powers and impose a solution, most likely by the end of this year.
Nedim Ademovic, an expert in constitutional law, believes that the decision announced by Schmidt should be implemented through a special law (lex specialis) for the entire country, given that the ban should apply to all public functions, and not only those related to the elections in BiH.
“The appointment of administrations, supervisory boards, and other public functions is not a matter of the Electoral Law, but of other laws, and for this reason a special law is needed that would solve this issue in general, and not to amend and supplement each individual law,” says Ademovic, Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
