Bosnia: Important Amendments To the Criminal Code

The Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted two days ago in urgent procedure important amendments to the Criminal Code. By recalibrating the crimes of torture, enforced disappearance and rape, the amended Criminal Code will help tackle widespread impunity, break the law of silence and provide justice and recognition to thousands of victims all across the country, TRIAL announced.

After years of pressure on State authorities, TRIAL welcomes the newly adopted set of modifications to BiH’s Criminal Code, which is now in line with international human rights standards.

The freshly modified Criminal Code codifies at last the crime of enforced disappearance and provides a more extensive definition of torture. It also broadens the scope of persons to be held criminally liable for those serious human rights violations and plans sanctions adapted to their gravity. This set of amendments is a decisive push towards better accountability, not only for crimes committed during the 1992-1995 war, but also for crimes committed nowadays.

Those newly adopted amendments crown TRIAL’s long-term fight for better accountability in BiH regarding those crimes. In 2011 for instance, the NGO had voiced its deepest concern to the Ministry of Justice, highlighting the inconsistency between BiH criminal legislation and international standards when dealing with war-time rape and sexual violence, as well as torture and enforced disappearance.

“This is an important moment for Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has finally aligned to international standards its Criminal Code for crimes of war-time rape, torture and enforced disappearance. Thanks to these newly adopted amendments, the State will limit space for impunity for past crimes and prevent their re-occurrence in future”, says TRIAL’s legal adviser, Adrijana Hanušić.  

Without respite, the NGO had meetings, attended the public consultation process, submitted reports to the Ministry of Justice and informed international bodies on this issue. TRIAL had advocated for BiH to provide a clearer definition of torture and to plan heavier sanctions for perpetrators. Related to the definition of the crime of rape, committed as a crime against humanity or as a war crime against civilians, the NGO insisted that it need to be aligned with international standards, eliminating the use of force or threat of force on the victim of rape or a person close to her as an element of the crime. TRIAL also advocated for enforced disappearance to be considered as a separate crime.

“After years of advocacy to promote the respect human rights in our country, State officials have finally taken concrete action. We support their move forward and invite them to continue to support the rule of law, especially in cases related to war-crimes, so that we can prevent impunity to the maximum”, concludes Selma Korjenić, TRIAL Coordinator for the Support of Wartime Sexual Violence Survivors.

(Published on TRIAL website on May 22, 2015.)