On March 13, 2014, at the premises of the Grand Hotel, consultations were held on the draft “Report of the Justice Network for the UN Universal Periodic Review on the State of Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina”. The consultations were organized by the Association for Democratic Initiatives (ADI) and the Center for Human Rights in Sarajevo on behalf of the Justice Network with the technical support of the USAID Justice Sector Development Project II. This event helped Network members to finalize the report to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, with the aim of advocating through this international mechanism for more effective protection of human rights. Also, this event forms the basis for planning of future advocacy activities related to the UPR, in particular the presentation of the report and the Network in November at the Geneva Council meeting.
The draft report was prepared based on the four-year activity of the UPR Monitoring Working Group. The areas covered in the UPR report are: Access to justice (includes free legal aid); Prohibition and prosecution of discrimination (sub-topics: implementation of the Law on Protection of Rights, constitutional reforms, ethnic segregation in schools, protection of the rights of sexual minorities); Independence of judicial institutions; Independence of judges and prosecutors; Transitional Justice; Freedom of thought and speech; Protection of human rights defenders; Ombudsman Institution; Training of judges and prosecutors in the field of human rights and the application of international standards; Fight against corruption.
Participants of the consultation were the members of the Justice Network, representatives of civil society and experts in the field of human rights research, advocacy and public action, as well as representatives of international organizations in BiH and the media. The attendees made their comments on the draft report and included it in the final version of the report, which will be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council as a report of the Justice Network.
The agenda of the consultation can be downloaded here: Konsultacije-Agenda-13032014
