Denial and justification of war crimes have been a commonplace occurrence in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the past. However, over the past few years, this country has been faced with a rising number of such cases in public spaces. The previous High Representative, Valentin Inzko, enacted changes to the Criminal Code of BiH in July of 2021, thus enacting the ban on public approval, denial, gloss trivialization and justification of war crimes, crime of genocide, crimes against humanity or a war crime established by a final judgement. However, since then, the BiH judiciary hasn't prosecuted a single case of this kind.
Expert roundtable discussion which gathered experts from the legal community, civil society and international organizations, was organized in response to this issue. Participants had an opportunity to discuss related cases as well as practices of international courts and mechanisms for protection of human rights in this context, with a special focus on implementation of Paragraph 3 of Article 145a of this Code.
The event served as an important platform to exchange experience as it gathered relevant actors and their expertise in one place. Introduction for the discussion was given by Milanko Kajganić, Lead Prosecutor in Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, Džemila Begović, legal expert in the area of criminal law, and Franjo Dragičević, Senior Legal Adviser in Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the event, the organizers also presented an analysis offering insight into practices of the European Court of Human Rights, the European Commission for Human Rights and the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations related to cases of glorification, trivialization and approval of war crimes from Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland. Author of the analysis Dejan Lučka introduced the publication, along with legal expert Lejla Gačanica, who provided explanations on the social and political context and reviewed the analysis.
Participants of the roundtable agree that the Article 145a of Criminal Code can be applied in practice and that it is high time to start the process of implementation and establishment of court practice, following the practice of European Court for Human Rights. The need for events of this nature in the future was also highlighted.
The roundtable was organized by forumZFD in BiH, TRIAL International in BiH and Network for building peace.
