The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina held on 16 and 17 December 2024 a technical seminar titled “The Protection of Personal Data and the Protection of the Right to Privacy (in civil and criminal proceedings)”, in cooperation with AIRE Centre, and with the support of the United Kingdom Government.

The Seminar was opened by Ermina Dumanjić, Head of the Department for Constitutional Case Law of the Constitutional Court of BiH, who underlined that the topic of the protection of personal data and privacy was of crucial importance to the modern judicial system.

"The protection of personal data and privacy are the key challenges of a modern society. These issues require constant exchange of knowledge and experience among colleagues from the region, and it is my special pleasure to host distinguished colleagues from the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia”.

In her opening address, Martina Raguž, Project Manager of AIRE Centre, reflected on the importance of this topic in a broad context of the rule of law, and indicated that technological progress sets new challenges before judicial systems, to be the subject of research and education administered by AIRE Centre.

“Technological progress, including artificial intelligence and social networks, brings new challenges before the judiciary, particularly with respect to the lawfulness of evidence. A discussion on the judgments, as is the one rendered by the High Criminal Court in Croatia, which confirmed the lawfulness of the use of Sky communications as evidence, provides exceptionally important perspectives for other judiciary institutions of the region too.”

The representatives of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia and the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia spoke about concrete solutions to challenges, which the judiciaries encounter in the context of the protection of privacy and personal data, through the analysis of practical examples and judgments.

Morana Briški, Senior Court Adviser - Specialist of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia, spoke about balancing the right to privacy and the efficient conduct of court proceedings.

"Rapid development of contemporary modes of communication sets numerous challenges before the judiciary: how to protect the fundamental right to privacy, while simultaneously carrying out the basic judicial task – lawful and effective conduct of court proceedings. Through certain seminar topics, we presented key judgments and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Court of the European Union, which could serve as guidelines for solving specific situations requiring a balance between the right to privacy of an individual and the legitimate interests of the social community".

Nikolina Katić, Constitutional Court Advisor of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia, reflected on the dynamic nature of the Convention regarding this topic.

"Bearing in mind that the Convention is a living instrument and that the case law of the ECtHR is changing to keep pace with the challenges of the modern society, the protection of personal data and the right to privacy become a very important topic in the development of the Convention and the case law of the ECtHR, considering all the issues being raised before the national courts, as well as the ECtHR. Also interesting is the fact that the protection of personal data raises issues within the scope of the Convention rights, which does not concern solely the right to privacy. Therefore, we tried to provide a framework as part of this seminar, within which it would be possible to solve those issues!

Through this and similar seminars, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina aims to render possible additional direct exchange of experience between the constitutional courts of two states, precisely through the persons working directly on the preparation of decisions on appeals for judges, which implies everyday familiarisation and analysis of the case law of the ECtHR and that of the constitutional and ordinary courts in the region, as well as in Europe and the world.