Bosnia's High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) responded on Friday to the foreign embassies and organisations in the country, which expressed their concern over the situation in Bosnia's judiciary last month, saying they acknowledge their concern and constructive criticism.
Besides recalling that the implementation of previously endorsed reforms was in a stalemate, the embassies also pointed out that the HJPC, a special state-level body which oversees the work of the judiciary, did not treat the important appointments in one of Bosnia's two semi-automatic regions, the Federation (FBiH).
“Favouring some appointments and postponing the others creates the impression that there are political or other reasons guiding the Council in its decision making,” they said adding that the Council's image in eyes of the public was “deteriorated.”
Following a three-day session, which ended on Friday, the HJPC responded.
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“The High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina acknowledges the concern and majority of the constructive criticism expressed in the joint letter that the European Union, the OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the US Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina sent us on May 28, 2019,” said the Council.
“We are aware of the delay in the procedure of appointment of judicial officials as well as the judges of the Federation's Constitutional Court. We would like to emphasise that the delay is mostly a consequence of objective reasons (adoption of a new normative framework for appointments) and not only of our subjective omissions in work,” the Council wrote in the response.
The Council obliged to approach the appointments immediately, based on the finished vacancy calls, and will continuously analyse the new normative framework for appointments and make corrections if necessary.
Among other things, the letter also said the Council was aware of the necessity to intensify the cooperation with professional community and associations, which will alleviate the implementation of reforms we already showed the support for.
“In the upcoming period, we will design our own reform programme and present it in the convention set to take place in November 2019,” reads the letter.
