RS Government Illegally Withheld Session Minutes

(Patria) - Transparency International in BiH won a lawsuit against the Government of Republika Srpska for refusing to publish minutes from sessions where the Bill on the Special Register and Public Transparency of Non-Profit Organizations of RS was determined.

Due to the controversial and non-transparent process of adopting this law, for which there was significant public interest as it deeply infringes upon fundamental human rights, TI BiH requested minutes from the sessions where the Bill on the Special Register and Public Transparency of Non-Profit Organizations of RS was determined from the Government of RS. The General Secretariat of the Government of Republika Srpska rejected this request, claiming, among other things, that the publication of the requested information, i.e., government session minutes, is not in the public interest.

TI BiH subsequently approached the court, which ruled that the withholding of the requested information was illegal and that the Government had incorrectly applied the provisions of the Law on Freedom of Access to Information. The ruling of the District Court in Banja Luka specifically points out the denial of the constitutionally guaranteed right to appeal and the failure to conduct a public interest test when making the decision.

As a reminder, the Government of Republika Srpska determined the Bill on the Special Register and Public Transparency of Non-Profit Organizations in complete secrecy and sent it for adoption to the National Assembly of RS, and the decision on when and how the Bill was determined was not available to the public. Only after media inquiries did information emerge from the Government that the aforementioned Bill was determined at a session held on March 21, 2024, just before the deadline, even though the adoption of this Bill was not mentioned in the announced agenda or in the Government's information after the session.

This verdict is just the latest in a series of examples of the unsatisfactory level of transparency shown by the authorities in Republika Srpska, as confirmed by research conducted by TI BiH, according to which only 5 governments in BiH regularly publish decisions, while none of the 14 governments in Bosnia and Herzegovina publish materials from held sessions, leading to increased mistrust in the work of institutions and greater room for abuse of procedures and decision-making that is not in the public interest.