State Department Reports
Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2006
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Bosnia and Herzegovina
The independent state of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two multiethnic constituent entities within the state, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska, along with the Brcko District. As stipulated in the 1995 Dayton Agreement that ended the 1992-95 war, a state-level constitution provides for a federal democratic republic with a bicameral parliamentary assembly but assigns many governmental functions to the two entities. In October the country held self-administered national elections that international observers judged to be generally free and fair. The government's human rights record remained poor, although there were improvements in some areas. Serious problems that remained included: death from landmines; physical abuse by police; overcrowding and poor prison conditions; improper influence on the judiciary; harassment and intimidation of journalists; restrictions on religious minorities and attacks on religious structures; obstructionism toward minority returnees; government corruption; societal discrimination against women, ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, and persons with disabilities; ethnically-motivated violence; trafficking in persons; and limits on employment rights. Two of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia's most wanted war crimes suspects, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, also remained at large.
The U.S. strategy for promoting human rights in the country focused on promoting a robust civil society through media and NGO development, building the capacity of government institutions on both the state and entity level, strengthening the rule of law through judicial system improvements, combating discrimination against vulnerable groups, advocating for religious freedom, and assisting the government in combating trafficking in persons. The United States also focused on developing more competitive and inclusive political processes in which moderate political parties could compete more effectively, particularly with regard to the October national elections. Efforts to increase citizen participation in political decision-making and voter turnout were also priorities.
To promote democracy and the political process, senior U.S. officials continued to send a strong message on democratic reform and respect for human rights. For the first time since the end of the war, U.S. efforts brought representatives from the country's three constituent ethnic groups together to discuss changes to the Dayton Agreement. The discussion resulted in a number of proposed reforms intended to strengthen state structures to make the government more effective and efficient; the proposed reforms failed to win adoption in parliament by only a small margin but were instrumental in advancing a discourse on democratic reform in the country.
During the year the United States launched a civic advocacy partnership program to augment work by NGOs to strengthen the political process. The program focused its work on increasing political awareness and activism in the pre-election period, thereby generating greater voter turnout and a more informed electorate. During the pre-election period, the program supported the civic movement GROZD (Citizens Organized for Democracy), the largest network of its kind ever organized in the country, which included 480 NGOs and 3,000 volunteers in over 100 municipalities. The movement called for parties to adopt concrete political platforms rather than rely on campaign slogans. A total of 500,000 citizens signed GROZD's petition, and 36 political parties agreed to work on a platform if they were elected. Prior to the election, the U.S. Government also granted funds to several local NGOs to educate voters, encourage grassroots civic participation, and organize local election monitors to observe nearly 3,000 polling stations around the country during the vote.
The U.S. Government continued to assist in the development of an independent and professional media. Two U.S.-supported media projects provided training and technical assistance to journalists, editors, and owners of both print and electronic media. In an effort to raise journalism standards, the United States helped media partners ensure their survival in a tight, highly competitive market by professionalizing their business operations. In addition, U.S.-funded media assistance programs supported 650 investigative and in-depth reports by print, radio, and television partners through a 10-month project to increase citizen involvement and participation in the October general election. U.S. support for the creation of a national consortium of broadcasters and advertising agencies, the United Media Industry, demonstrated that rivals could become allies if they share economic interests. During the year publishers also met for the first time and agreed to form an association. Media partners received small grants to produce programs and articles that increased awareness of the contributions and challenges of women, minorities, and people with disabilities and that promoted tolerance and reconciliation.
U.S. programs provided local journalists training in reporting on specific issues, including war crimes, elections, and diversity. U.S. funds helped to develop an online resource for journalists reporting on war crimes. In the period preceding the general elections, the United States funded training for journalists on issues regarding election coverage. To help advance professional reporting standards, U.S. funds supported a program promoting free access to the media. The U.S. Government also provided funding to strengthen the capacities of local NGOs specializing in journalism training and to support journalistic reporting from diverse communities.
Development of the country's civil society and increased cooperation between NGOs and the government, particularly local governments, remained a U.S. priority. During the year a U.S.-funded civil society program assisted NGO coalitions in conducting advocacy campaigns on a variety of issues. The program helped depoliticize the primary school system in Tuzla Canton by introducing the direct election of school principals, revise state and entity-level laws to improve living conditions for persons with disabilities, secure the adoption of a law to protect the Prokosko Lake and Vranica mountain areas as natural monuments, and convince 32 local municipal councils to adopt procedures to increase citizen participation in the budget planning and implementation process.
The United States also promoted civil society through diverse educational and capacity-building initiatives. A U.S.-funded civic education project developed a democracy and human rights course taught in all secondary schools in the country. During the year the course was also taught at the Faculty of Islamic Sciences of the University of Sarajevo and at medresas (Muslim secondary schools) throughout the country. A U.S.-funded parliamentary internship program gave talented young Bosnians the opportunity to serve as interns in the country's state and entity-level parliaments, helping them gain valuable leadership skills and work experience. U.S. assistance was used to reform the way parliamentarians and their staff carry out lawmaking and oversight duties. U.S. grants assisted in building NGO capacity, developing communities, funding NGO Resource Centers, and promoting volunteerism to assist persons who were underserved by the government. U.S.-funded health projects focused on disease prevention, formation of a home-care medical team, and education and prevention programs related to women's health.
U.S. Government assistance strengthened the rule of law and judicial institutions in particular. With U.S. financial, technical, and political support, the country made significant strides in developing its capacity to investigate and try war crimes cases as well as cases involving official corruption, tax evasion, and money laundering. Intensive training programs for police, prosecutors, and judges increased skills in subjects such as crime scene investigation, chain of custody, and searches and seizures while providing a mechanism for open dialogue between law enforcement and the judiciary. U.S. funds supported the publication of a comprehensive reference on war crimes cases and convictions and provided prosecutors and judges the opportunity to travel to The Hague to interact with their counterparts at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. U.S. assistance to help the government fight corruption paid dividends during the year, when the government convicted a former minister of justice and deputy interior minister of forgery and abuse of office for making fraudulent bank loans. Another politician who had been a member of the three-person presidency was also convicted for abuse of office. The government also obtained significant convictions in both indictments transferred to the country from the tribunal in The Hague and in war crimes indictments based upon Bosnian investigations.
Judicial reform received a further boost from the U.S.-funded justice sector development program, which assisted the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, the oversight authority for the country's judicial system, on budgetary and appointment issues. The program also helped the state-level Ministry of Justice improve its ability to coordinate legal reform with entity-level institutions and NGOs. U.S.-funded programs helped to improve court administration practices and reform the system for providing legal counsel to indigent defendants. The successful "model court" project was extended to eleven additional courts in the country to reduce case backlogs and improve efficiency and responsiveness to the public. The U.S. Government also assisted a skills-based legal education reform program by providing two civil procedure legal clinics in law schools in Banja Luka and Bihac. U.S. programs also improved efficiency and accountability in local governments. A joint U.S.-Swedish governance accountability project continued improving the service and financial management profiles of 41 municipalities and their ability to respond effectively to citizens' needs. By year's end, 35 new municipal "one-stop shops" had been created throughout the country, enabling citizens and businesses to receive municipal permits more quickly, while simultaneously reducing corruption and discrimination against ethnic minorities.
The United States remained resolute in supporting efforts to address past human rights abuses in the country. Through U.S. funding, the International Commission on Missing Persons continued to collect blood samples to help identify persons reported missing during the 1992-95 conflict. By year's end the commission had collected over 64,746 samples representing 22,226 missing individuals and had generated DNA matches relevant to 8,549 missing individuals. The commission also assisted authorities in carrying out 294 exhumations of mass or illicit gravesites in 145 locations, leading to the recovery of 342 complete and 1,093 incomplete sets of human remains. The commission also trained staff for the newly operational state-level Missing Persons Institute and provided forensic information as evidence in war crimes proceedings. The United States also continued to support the development of the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery, where 2,442 of the estimated 7,800 victims of the Srebrenica massacre have been interred.
The United States actively supported initiatives to promote respect for the rights of women, children, persons with disabilities, and minority groups. One initiative provided funding to establish a centralized information center and registry of individuals officially categorized as "invalids," thereby widening a network of support and improving public awareness for the needs of persons with disabilities. During the year the United States continued to facilitate the return of refugees and persons displaced by the 1992-95 conflict, the majority of whom were from ethnic minorities. U.S. funding enabled the repair of vital local infrastructure, including the electrification of houses, and improved community-based government services in the areas to which these persons returned. The improvements were critical to helping returnees reestablish themselves as permanent residents in their communities. Working with the Bosnian Roma Council, the United States also funded a social research project to collect information on the social, economic, health, and education conditions of Romani citizens that would be used to help the government and NGOs modify regulations affecting Roma and improve their socio-economic status.
During the year state and entity-level authorities expanded antitrafficking efforts with U.S. assistance. Local NGOs continued to implement a U.S.-funded public awareness campaign targeting children and youth, victims of trafficking, potential consumers of sexual services, local authorities, and media professionals. The United States supported the national-level antitrafficking strike force with technical advice and training on the effective use of plea bargains. Prosecutors and police subsequently had several significant successes in trafficking cases. In October the government successfully prosecuted an individual for smuggling of persons, forgery, and aggravated theft. In November an appellate court affirmed a prior conviction for trafficking and money laundering and increased the sentence, imposing a fine and forfeiture of property. At year's end government prosecutors were pursuing a trafficking case in court against 10 defendants, seeking confiscation of a nightclub, a hotel, and real estate as part of the indictment. These cases were among the first examples of prosecutors confiscating property as an additional penalty for the crime of trafficking.