HJPC must be beyond any doubt of conflict of interest

The High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been advised to retain the existing Rulebook on Conflict of Interest for its members from May 2014, one of the conclusions of the two-day seminar on the topic of conflict of interest in the judiciary in Bosnia and Herzegovina, organized by the European Commission, and supported through the European Union's Instrument for Technical Assistance and Information Exchange (TAIEX), reports the BH News Agency Patria.

The HJPC should also propose detailed guidelines on the integrity of judges and prosecutors, which will be sent to the competent judicial institutions for further adoption.

According to the observations of experts from EU member states Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Croatia who participated in the seminar, the existing mechanism for preventing and resolving conflicts of interest is largely in line with the legal status and competencies of the HJPC, which enjoys a significant level of institutional independence, even much greater than is the case in most EU member states, especially when it comes to the central role of this institution in conducting proceedings related to the commencement of careers in the judiciary. In line with the above, the HJPC needs stricter rules regarding the integrity and accountability of its members.

A representative of the European Commission services reiterated the full support of the European Union for the integrity of the HJPC and its role in strengthening the rule of law in the country, and emphasized that the HJPC has a key task in strengthening the professionalism and accountability of the entire domestic judiciary. For this reason, the issue of conflict of interest should be subjected to clear parameters, so that the regulatory institution itself is beyond any doubt of possible clientelism.

Such a thing is also in line with the practice established during previous enlargement cycles of the European Union, according to which self-regulatory institutions, including the judiciary as a whole, are obliged to adopt higher ethical standards if they want to regain credibility and public trust. This includes, among other things, a higher degree of transparency of asset declarations, prohibition and restrictions on extra-judicial activities, as well as unambiguous rules on professional advancement during and after a judicial career or membership in the Council.

The seminar was held in Sarajevo on February 4 and 5, as part of the Structured Dialogue on Justice between the European Union and BiH, with the aim of considering practices and European standards in the prevention and fight against conflicts of interest in the judiciary. Experts from four EU member states shared their experiences with representatives of judicial institutions from all levels of government in BiH.