On June 24, 2022 the third meeting of the expert working group of the project “Contribution of the Academic Community to the Protection of Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina – CAHR” was held in the Ethno Village Stanišići in Bijeljina.
The subject of this meeting was to acquaint the members of the expert working group with the content of the “Guidelines for the use of force against perpetrators of violations of public order and peace”, “Guidelines for the use of police power in cases of peaceful assembly”, as well as with the content of the “Report on the Fight for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, which were prepared as part of project activities. After getting acquainted with the content of these documents through discussions and multidisciplinary analysis, certain proposals and suggestions for their amendments were given before the final versions will be sent to the authorities at all levels in BiH.
MSc Aleksandar Miladinović, author of the “Guidelines for the use of force against perpetrators of violations of public order and peace”, introduced the members of the expert working group with the content of the working version of this publication which aims to give police officers clear and precise instructions for legal application forces against perpetrators of violations of public order and peace, with reference to international standards in this area with special emphasis on the protection of the human right to freedom of opinion and expression and freedom of movement. This publication also contains examples of inadequate treatment in practice, as well as an analysis of errors and instructions in terms of how to proceed in a given case.
PhD Aleksandar Ivanović, author of the “Report on the Fight for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, presented the identified shortcomings of the misdemeanor law area of public order and peace, and the area of substantive and procedural criminal law of Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of provisions which have a restrictive effect on the exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, as well as proposals for solutions to eliminate them. He also presented the identified provisions of the misdemeanor law area of public/peaceful assembly, which have a limiting effect on the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and proposals for amendments, in order to create a legal framework that will greatly facilitate the exercise of this right.
In the second part of the meeting, MSc Aleksandar Miladinović, as the author of the “Guidelines for the application of police powers in cases of peaceful assembly”, presented a publication, which aims to acquaint police officers with European standards in terms of conduct during public gatherings, with special focusing on adequate and legal response in situations such as spontaneous gatherings, unreported gatherings, sporadic incidents at public gatherings and similar problem situations.
The project is funded by the European Commission in BiH.