OSCE launches report on combating impunity for wartime sexual violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina
SARAJEVO, 13 July 2015 – The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) presented today in Sarajevo its latest report entitled Combating Impunity for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Progress and Challenges.
The report examines the progress and obstacles that exist in investigating, prosecuting and adjudicating cases of conflict-related sexual violence within the criminal justice systems at the entity level and Brcko District of BiH. The OSCE report covers the period of 2004- 2014 and follows last year’s release of a related analysis focused on State-level justice institutions.
“The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina strives to help domestic institutions develop a justice system able to handle sexual violence cases in a manner that is sensitive to the needs of survivors and witnesses while upholding fundamental fair trial standards,” said Ambassador Jonathan Moore, Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The OSCE and the UK government have worked together to tackle the difficult and emotional issue of wartime sexual violence from a number of different perspectives – supporting organisations which provide psychological and emotional support to victims, supporting victims in obtaining their legal rights and providing guidance and training to the judiciary in handling such cases,” said Edward Ferguson, British Ambassador to BiH.
“Such reports are very useful tools that allow us to have a consolidated review of the jurisprudence of BiH courts in cases of sexual violence in conflict. They also help us in amending and adjusting our practice with the international law,” said Bozidarka Dodik, judge of the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The analysis, findings and recommendations on the processing of conflict-related sexual violence cases by the criminal justice system of BiH are based on findings from the OSCE Mission to BiH’s Trial Monitoring Programme.
The full report is available at: //www.osce.org/bih/171906