On 13 September 2010, in Sarajevo, President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council BiH (HJPCBiH) held a meeting with Richard Williams, Head of Human Dimension Unit at the OSCE BiH Mission and Francesco De-Sancits, legal advisor for war crimes matters of the Judicial System and Legislation Reform Section within the OSCE Mission in BiH.  

Topics of the meeting included independence of judicial system in Bosnia and Herzegovina through participation of the HJPCBiH in the process of changes to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of HJPCBiH becoming constitutions category, amendments and supplements of the Law on the HJPC BiH and implementation of Strategy for work on war crimes cases. 

"From OSCE point of view, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council BiH (HJPCBiH) is the core of the whole judicial system in Bosnia and Herzegovina", Richard Williams said, and the meeting concluded that amendments to the Law on the HJPCBiH should be carried out taking care to keep the independence of judicial system in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Milorad Novković, President of the HJPCBiH and Richard Williams, Head of Human Dimension Unit at the OSCE Mission in BiH agreed that, in not so distant future, organise a meeting between ambassador Gary D. Robbinsa, the Head of OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of introduction of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council BiH  HJPCBiH) into the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and amendments and supplements of the Law on the HJPC BiH.   

At the meeting, the talks were held on implementation of the State Strategy on the work on war crimes cases. On this occasion, President Novković underlined three objectives from this Strategy priority for further work. First was "case management" for which, according to words of President Novković, it was necessary to ensure faster tempo followed by "harmonisation of court practices" for which further cooperation of presidents of the Court BiH, Supreme Courts, the Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor; Office BiH and Republic Chief Prosecutor was necessary and the third objective was to achieve effectiveness of work of judicial institutions processing war crimes " emphasised Novković, and added: "Number of witnesses become unmotivated to testify and, unfortunately, some of them died while certain number of witnesses for biological reasons are not able to come before court or provide viable testimony and material evidence deteriorates due to lapse of time“.  

In this context, President Novković expressed his opinion that, with good organisation, some processes can be completed before deadlines laid down in the Strategy for work on war crimes cases. 

The meeting ended with mutual wishes to continue successful cooperation between the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council BiH (HJPCBiH) and OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.   

- THE END-