The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the appeal of Transparency International in BiH (TIBiH) and established a violation of the right to a fair trial in relation to the adoption of a decision within a reasonable time before the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo.
In a press release, TIBiH points out that this decision comes after a long-term legal fight against institutional non-transparency that began in 2014, and that it confirms a much wider problem of judicial inefficiency, due to which the right to access information in BiH often remains only a formally guaranteed right without real protection.
They remind that the case was initiated more than a decade ago, when TIBiH sent a request for access to information to the Federal Ministry for Veterans and Invalids of the Defense and Liberation War. Instead of an answer, as they emphasize, what followed was a systematic refusal and hiding of information, due to which TIBiH was forced to file as many as four lawsuits, and despite the fact that they all ended with verdicts in favor of TIBiH, access to information has not been achieved to date.
“The key problem in this case was precisely the length of the proceedings before the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo, which took more than four years to make a decision on only one of the claims filed by TI BiH. The lawsuit was filed on June 28, 2019, while the verdict was handed down only on September 14, 2023,” it was stated in the announcement.
In its decision, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina emphasized that the proceedings on the lawsuit lasted for about seven years and that it “did not notice any fact or argument that could justify the length of the said proceedings”, emphasizing the noticeable contribution of the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo to the violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time.
Due to the violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ordered the President of the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo to end the proceedings, while the Government of the Canton of Sarajevo was ordered to pay compensation for non-material damage to TIBiH.
TIBiH warns that the decision of the Constitutional Court goes beyond the importance of an individual case and points to a serious systemic problem with resolving cases within a reasonable time before the courts in BiH, which the Constitutional Court also established in its decision. In their opinion, the fact that in cases related to access to information, court decisions often take several years is of particular concern.
“Such a practice directly renders the purpose of the law on freedom of access to information meaningless. Information of public interest is requested so that citizens, media and civil society organizations can monitor the work of institutions in a timely manner, point out irregularities and demand the responsibility of public office bearers,” TIBiH emphasizes.
They said that, despite systemic obstructions and long-term processes, insisting on transparency remains the only way to force institutions to work responsibly and be accountable to citizens.
That is why TIBiH called on citizens, journalists and activists not to give up their rights and to actively demand information from public authorities. For these needs, the platform pristupinformacijam.ba was created, which enables simple, fast and completely free generation and sending of requests for access to information to any institution in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as monitoring deadlines during the procedure.
