Venice Commission visits BiH: Should judicial reform start with the HJPC?

(Patria) - As part of a multi-day stay in our country aimed at preparing an Opinion on the draft law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HJPC BiH), the Delegation of the European
Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) of the Council of Europe spoke with representatives of political parties that make up the parliamentary majority in the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (PA BiH).

Representatives of the PA BiH, with the meeting attended by the Chair of the House of Peoples Kemal Ademović, delegate Marina Pendeš, deputies Mia Karamehić-Abazović, Miroslav Vujičić, Milorad Kojić, Predrag Kožul, Predrag Kojović and Milan Petković, stated during the talks that the situation in BiH's judiciary is consistently poor.

It is characterized, it was jointly assessed, by sluggishness, inefficiency, strong political influence, and even still present confusion due to inadequate solutions within the implemented judicial reforms. In such circumstances, the HJPC has not raised the level of judicial independence, nor has it best fulfilled its role and created an environment in which the overall situation would improve and the accountability of judges and prosecutors would be raised to the highest possible level.

In the conversation with the Delegation of the Venice Commission, the present deputies and delegates, in their individual statements, pointed out numerous shortcomings in the judiciary for which the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH, through its work, has not provided an adequate response and for which this body bears a significant part of the responsibility. Thus, as could be heard, the HJPC has not influenced the reduction in the number of cases not taken into work or the practice of favoring work on less complex cases in order to more easily fulfill judicial norms.

Also, attention was drawn to the unchanged practice of multi-year trials in processes that objectively require much faster solutions. On several occasions, the HJPC was described as an alienated center of power with very strong interest groups that do not allow for quality progress forward. One of the tasks that has not been realized is the establishment of asset declarations for judicial officials, so for less than one-fifth of judges and prosecutors in BiH, the scope and origin of assets are known. At the same time, different administrative units in BiH adhere to
standards that are completely uneven.

Part of the deputies and delegates of the PA BiH also pointed out the unsatisfactory entity and ethnic
representation both among the members of the Council and among the officials of the Secretariat of the
HJPC, while different opinions could also be heard according to which insisting on any
ethnic principle in the judiciary is unacceptable.

After hearing the presentations of the representatives of the PA BiH, the members of the Delegation of the Venice Commission were particularly interested in the steps being taken to increase the efficiency of the judiciary and shorten the duration of trials, acceptable models for expanding the number of members of the HJPC, as well as thoughts on whether judicial reform should start with the HJPC.

Through a series of meetings with BiH officials, the Delegation of the Venice Commission is trying to prepare the best possible Opinion on the draft law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HJPC BiH). That document should be prepared next week, to be presented at the plenary session of this expert body of the Council of Europe on June 21 and 22.

The ultimate goal of that material, it was stated, is to contribute to the higher quality of the Law on the HJPC and the improvement of the functioning of the judiciary in accordance with European standards.