The Universal Protection of Human Rights and Eastern Europe: Bosnia and Herzegovina

The effective protection of human rights is extremely important in countries in transition faced with the challenge of overcoming an authoritarian past rife with severe violations of basic human rights and freedoms. In post-war societies, where large-scale violations of human rights have resulted from armed conflicts, the effective protection of human rights is even more crucial. Therefore, it is not surprising that one of the primary goals of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Dayton Peace Agreement) was to establish an adequate legal and institutional framework for the enforcement and protection of human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina provides for a special status to the European Convention on Human Rights and its protocols, which, pursuant to Article II.1 of the Constitution, shall have priority over all other laws. The Constitution also stipulates that the enjoyment of rights and freedoms provided for in the 15 human rights instruments listed in Annex 1 to the Constitution shall be guaranteed to all persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina without discrimination on any grounds. While the Constitution envisages the existence of several institutions responsible for guaranteeing respect for human rights, the possibility of BiH citizens to directly address the European Court of Human Rights as well as other bodies responsible for monitoring the implementation of appropriate human rights instruments, whose practice will be discussed within this paper, is of great importance. Although this type of protection is highly important, it is necessary to strive for the improvement of the national (BiH and entity) human rights protection system, through the continuous improvement of the legal framework and the functioning of institutions entrusted with the protection and enforcement of human rights. The paper also analyses the effects of the ratification of international instruments on human rights protection.