OSCE supports comprehensive approach to justice sector reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Fletcher M. Burton, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, met on 20 November 2012 in Sarajevo with Milorad Novković, the President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) to discuss the longstanding co-operation between the OSCE Mission and the HJPC in promoting an independent, accountable, and efficient judiciary in the country.

The meeting took place on the margins of an HJPC-organized Conference on Prosecuting Or-ganized Crime and Corruption in BiH. Burton and Novković also discussed the Mission’s up-coming plans to increase support to the BiH justice sector reform and to help the authorities to achieve the goals set out in the National War Crimes Strategy. They also discussed recent ini-tiatives suggesting that prosecutors be appointed by relevant legislative bodies rather than the HJPC.

“The High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council has a key role in developing a justice system in which the people of BiH have confidence. Independent judiciary is essential for the function-ing of the rule of law and to the future development of the country,” said Burton.

He underlined the importance of the EU – BiH Structured Dialogue on Justice, a unified plat-form for domestically-driven dialogue to ensure reforms are appropriate within the BiH legal context and in light of the BiH’s EU perspective. “As a member of the consultative group for the Structured Dialogue, the OSCE Mission remains fully supportive of the work of BiH au-thorities to utilise this mechanism to carry out real sustainable reform in the justice sector”, said Burton.