OSCE Mission Chief in BiH Brian Aggeler Visited the Constitutional Court of BiH

(Patria) - The Head of the OSCE Mission in BiH, Ambassador Brian Aggeler, visited the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina today with his associates.

Aggeler was received by the President of the Constitutional Court, Seada Palavrić, with her associates, who presented the functioning of the institution in the period after his May visit.

She pointed out the lack of understanding from other BiH institutions regarding the financing of the Constitutional Court, and behavior that makes the Constitutional Court and its judges dependent on the executive branch, thus endangering their autonomy and independence.

When asked by the ambassador how the Constitutional Court functions at all under the current conditions, President Palavrić emphasized the invaluable role of international judges who have maximally engaged not only in resolving cases of abstract constitutional review but also in resolving cases from the citizens' appellate jurisdiction.

She stressed that, although the constitution-maker stipulated one-third international and two-thirds domestic judges as members of the Constitutional Court of BiH, thereby enabling domestic judges to make any decision without the votes of international judges, the fact is that due to the failure to elect the missing domestic judges, the Constitutional Court would not be able to function at all, and has not been able to for two years.

She also pointed out that at this pace, i.e., working only in plenary sessions, the Constitutional Court manages to resolve barely a third of the cases compared to the number of appeals that arrive daily at the Constitutional Court.

Therefore, there are currently about 10,000 unresolved cases in the Constitutional Court from the appellate jurisdiction, meaning those that directly concern individual citizens.

Of these, 4,000 are prepared and waiting for the missing domestic judges to be elected (two from Republika Srpska and one judge from the Federation of BiH who is to replace Seada Palavrić, who turns 70 in two months).

Aggeler expressed great understanding for the situation in which the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina operates. Hence, the OSCE Mission in BiH is ready to provide assistance to the Constitutional Court in its work in any way within its competence.

First and foremost, OSCE assistance was agreed upon for the implementation of a project called "Improving the Cybersecurity of the Constitutional Court," which is a burning issue for the Constitutional Court, and for which there are no funds in the budget for the Constitutional Court.

In the end, it was concluded that such meetings will continue.