A part of the international community is consistent in supporting the independent judiciary but some have changed their stance, Bosnia's top judicial official Milan Tegeltija said in an interview on Wednesday, noting that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the most obvious example.
The OSCE “significantly” changed its stance on the independent judiciary, said Tegeltija, who serves as the President of Bosnia's High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), a state-level institution overseeing the work of the judiciary.
“The last very obvious example is the example of the OSCE which significantly changed its stance on the independent judiciary and the HJPC in terms of its parliamentary control,” Tegeltija told Glas Srpske daily, adding that the OSCE today has a “diametrically opposed stance” supporting the Parliament and parliamentary investigative commission instead of judiciary.
The lower chamber of Bosnia's Parliament called last month the Council members to resign and for a special commission to look into the state of Bosnia’s judicial institutions.
The HJPC assessed the decision as interference with judicial affairs.
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If the conclusions are implemented, Tegeltija said, It would take not only the judiciary but the whole country into an absurd.
“The concept of the rule of law would fall apart as well as the concept of distribution of power and the independent judiciary. Now, think about where it could all go,” he warned.
According to him, this kind of pressure has not been present since the Dayton Peace Agreement signing, a treaty which ended the Bosnian 1992-95 war and which contains the State Constitution.
