The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina held today its regular 55th session of the Grand Chamber.
We note that for different reasons the courts and administrative authorities do not often abide by, to a sufficient extent, the standards of the right to a fair trial under Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 6(1) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Despite measures taken for resolving the issue of the excessive length of the court proceedings, the Constitutional Court finds that such excessive length of the court proceedings is a consequence of system deficiencies in organization of the judiciary and effective exercising of jurisdiction of different levels of public authority in this area. This causes a systematic violation of this right before the regular courts.
The Constitutional Court concludes that there is a violation of the right to an effective legal remedy under Article 13 of the European Convention for the Protection of the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in conjunction with the right to a trial within reasonable time-limit under Article 6 paragraph 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, since there is no effective legal remedy which would allow the appellant, prior to lodging an appeal with the Constitutional Court to speed up the proceedings which is pending or allow redress for deferment that had already occurred.
The consequence thereof is a significant number of appeals lodged with the Constitutional Court of BiH with regard to the right to a fair trial, notably with regard to the failure to take a decision within the reasonable time.
At the today’s session, the Constitutional Court examined a number of appeals lodged for alleged violation of the right to a fair trial.
In the cases in which the Court established a violation of Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 6 paragraph 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms for the length of the proceedings and violation of the right to an effective legal remedy under Article 13 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in conjunction with the right to a fair trial within reasonable time limit under Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 6 paragraph 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in cases, the Constitutional Court has done the following:
Having regard to Article 74(1) of the Rules of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it has ordered to the competent executive authorities to pay out to the appellants the amount of BAM 1,000 each for the compensation of non-pecuniary damages for the failure to adopt decision within reasonable time-limit, within a time-limit of three months from the submission of the decision with obligation to pay out the legal default interest rate on the unpaid amount or part of the amount of compensation as determined by these decision, after the expiration of this time-limit.
Having regard to Article 72(4) of the Rules of the Constitutional Court, it has ordered to the
High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina to take adequate measures arising under its jurisdiction, within six months from the date of submission of this decision for the purpose of removal of systematic violation of the right to trial within reasonable time-limit under Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of BiH and Article 6 paragraph 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms as well as adequate measures arising under its jurisdiction for the purpose of removal of the violation of the right to an effective legal remedy under Article 13 of the European Convention in conjunction with the right to trial within reasonable time limit under Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of BiH and Article 6 paragraph 1 of the European Convection for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in accordance with this decision.
The Constitutional Court of BiH ordered the competent governments to take adequate measures arising under its jurisdiction, in accordance with these decisions, no later than six months from the date of submission of this decision, for the purpose of removal of systematic violation of the right to trial within reasonable time limit under Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of BiH and Article 6 paragraph 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms as well as adequate measures arising under its jurisdiction for the purpose of removal of violation of the right to an effective legal remedy under Article 13 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in conjunction with the right to trial within reasonable time-limit under Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of BiH and Article 6 paragraph 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in accordance with this decision.
The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has ordered the Presidents of the competent regular courts to immediately take adequate measures arising under its jurisdiction, in accordance with the decisions, for the purpose of removal of systematic violations of the right to trial within reasonable time-limit under Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of BiH and Article 6 paragraph 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms based on Article 62(7) of the Rules of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and measures for completion of the proceedings under these decisions in accordance with Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
The Constitutional Court has ordered the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, competent governments and Presidents of the competent regular courts, in accordance with Article 72(5) of the Rules of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to inform the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the measures taken to enforce the decisions not later than six months from the date of delivery of the relevant decisions.
The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has rejected a number of appeals lodged in an untimely fashion, either after the expiration of time-limit for the submission of appeal or prematurely, in the cases in which it was established that the appellants failed to use all available legal remedies in the preceding proceedings.
The Court has also adopted a number of decisions rejecting as inadmissible appeals which are prima facie manifestly ill-founded as the requests of the appellants were not justified or the facts the appellants presented to the Court in those case could not have justified in any manner a claim of the appellants that there is a violation of their rights protected by the Constitution or that the appellants as the parties to the proceedings bear consequences of violation of the rights as protected by the Constitution.
All decisions taken at the session are to be delivered to the appellants within one month time-limit and posted on the official website of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
