Brief an den Hohen Repräsentanten zum Mandat der internationalen Richter
12.12.2009: Gemeinsam mit anderen Unterzeichnerinnen und Unterzeichner fordert Cem Özdemir den Hohen Repräsentanten in Bosnien und Herzegowina, Valentin Inzk, dazu auf, das Mandat internationaler Richter und Staatsanwälte am Gerichtshof von Bosnien und Herzegowina zu verlängern.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Dear High Representative Inzko,
The entrenchment of the Rule of Law has been a key focus of the international community’s postwar engagement in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The inclusion of international judges and prosecutors in the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, sitting in the special chambers for War Crimes and Organized Crime, are essential components in this effort, as the Chief Prosecutor and President of the Court attested to you and the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) Steering Board last month. These professionals are required to complement the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as well as the domestic struggle against organized crime and corruption. Should the international judges and prosecutors not have their mandates renewed by December 14th, a number of ongoing cases will have to be restarted. Years of effort toward ensuring justice will have been wasted.
More than half of the international personnel serving in the Court last year have left, uncertain that their contracts would be extended. Domestic authorities have made no provisions to fund these positions or fill them with Bosnian and Herzegovinian professionals. The result would not only affect a number of ongoing and pending cases in both chambers, but perhaps the viability of the Court of BiH itself. That seems to be precisely the objective of a number of Bosnian politicians, who are wary of investigation and potential prosecution at the Court.
We the undersigned wish to express our deep concern that most PIC Steering Board members are counseling against extension of these judges’ and prosecutors’ mandates for reasons of political convenience and expediency, wishing to avoid additional friction following the failed "Butmir process” of talks on constitutional reforms. Such a stance not only threatens to undermine the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but is politically shortsighted as well. The political conflicts these PIC members hope to avoid will certainly occur in any case - after they have further weakened their own ability to address them by their clear failure to respond on this matter, which is widely recognized as pivotal.
As High Representative, you have the executive authority and moral responsibility to act to protect the Dayton Accords and the achievements of over a decade of efforts to entrench rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On Human Rights Day, we believe the most significant action towards fulfilling that responsibility would be the imposition of the simple changes to the law that would extend the mandates of the international legal personnel at the State Court for an additional three years. We therefore urge you, in your capacity as High Representative, to take this step.
Sincerely,
SIGNATORIES
Former High Representatives
Dr. Wolfgang Petritsch
Dr. Christian Schwarz-Schilling
International Parliamentarians/Politicians
Marieluise Beck, MP Bundestag, Bündnis90/Grüne, Berlin
Franziska Brantner, MEP, Group of Greens, European Free Alliance
Jelko Kacin, MEP, Liberal Democracy Slovenia, ALDE Group
Cem Özdemir, Co-Chair Bündnis90/Grüne, Berlin
Diana Wallis, MEP, Liberal Democrats Party, ALDE Group
NGOs and Civil Society Organizations/Leaders
ACIPS, Sarajevo
Kurt Bassuener, Democratization Policy Council, Sarajevo
Sonja Biserko, President, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
Darko Brkan, CA Why not? (UG Zasto ne?), Movement Dosta!, Sarajevo
Dr. Svetlana Broz, Director NGO GARIWO, Sarajevo Center for Civic Cooperation, Livno: Zulka Baljak, Managing Director, Kata Marijan Krzelj, Program Manager
Jelena Golubović, Belgrade Center for Human Rights; Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada
Ljuljjeta Goranci Brkić, General Manager, Nansen Dialogue Center, Sarajevo
Mirela Grünther-Đecevic, Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, Head of country office for Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sarajevo
John W. Heffernan, Director, Speak Truth To Power Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, Washington, DC
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo
Tim Hughes, former Head of Investigation and Verification Department, Independent Judicial Commission (IJC); Washington, DC
Valerie Hughes, Ireland Action for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dublin, Ireland
Human Rights Centre, University of Sarajevo
Human Rights House of Sarajevo
Biljana Kovačević-Vučo, Chairperson, Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM), Belgrade
Branka Magaš and Quintin Hoare, The Bosnian Institute, London
Alma Mašić, Head of Office, Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Sarajevo
Andrej Nosov, Heartefact Fund, Belgrade
Zoran Pusić, president of the Civic Committee for Human Rights, Zagreb
Philipp Ruch, Center for Political Beauty, Berlin
Vehid Šehić, President, Citizens' Forum, Tuzla
Mirsad Tokača, Director of the Research and Documentation Center (RDC), Sarajevo
Vesna Terselić, Director, DOCUMENTA - CENTRE FOR DEALING WITH THE PAST, Zagreb
Transparency International, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Peter Julian Walsh, Ireland Action for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greystones, Ireland
Bodo Weber, Democratization Policy Council, Berlin
Justice and Human Rights Professionals/Academia
Vlado Azinović, Ph.D., School of Political Science, University of Sarajevo
Annika Björkdahl, Associate Professor / Docent, Department of Political Science Lund University, Sweden
Tanya L. Domi, Adjunct Professor of International Affairs, Columbia University
Kelly M. Greenhill, Assistant Professor, Tufts University and Research Fellow, Harvard University
Jeremy Kinsman, former Canadian Ambassador and High Commissioner, currently Regents’ Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley
Lara Nettelfield, Post Doctoral Fellow, Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals; Assistant Professor, School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University Vancouver
Ambassador Mark Palmer, former US Ambassador to Hungary
Dr. Olga Martin-Ortega, Senior Research Fellow, Centre on Human Rights in Conflict University of East London
Andras Riedlmayer, editor of International Justice Watch
Prof. Džemal Sokolović, Institute of Comparative Politics and Rokkan Center for Social Studies, University of Bergen, Norway
Professor Chandra Lekha Sriram, Chair in Human Rights and Director, Centre on Human Rights in Conflict, School of Law University of East London
Iva Vukušić, Sense Agency, The Hague
Jon Western, Ph.D., Five College Associate Professor of International Relations Mount Holyoke College and the Five Colleges, Inc.
Concerned Individuals
Steve Albert, former editor of BosNet, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Neven Anđelić, Birkbeck College, London
Diego E. Arria, former Representative of Venezuela to the UN
Maja Drnda, Barcelona, Spain
Rev. John Feighery, Dublin, Ireland
Marshall Harris, former State Dept official, Alston and Bird LLC, Washington, DC
Ivana Howard, MA in Democracy and Human Rights in SEE, Sarajevo
Zlatko Hurtić (international development expert), Sarajevo
Senada Kreso, Sarajevo
Selma Mustović, New York City, USA
Conor Smith Gaffney, Chicago, Illinois, USA
