Mr. Thomas Markert, the Secretary General of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission) has visited the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina today.
The President of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mr. Mirsad Ćeman and Mr. Thomas Markert have exchanged experiences about the hitherto cooperation of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, and particularly so about the cooperation with the Venice Commission in the domain of the promotion and advancement of human rights protection.
During the conversation a particular attention was paid to the issue of the enforcement of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Emphasis were placed on the significance of the enforcement of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the consistency of the legal system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the importance of the enforcement of court decisions in general, in terms of the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
President Ćeman thanked Mr. Markert for a valuable cooperation with the Venice Commission in relation to the requests made by the Constitutional Court of BiH for opinions from the Venice Commission (amicus curiae) on individual legal issues in the three cases so far.
Mr. Markert emphasized that the Venice Commission is familiar with and shows its support for and satisfaction with the results achieved by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in particular with respect to the significance and role of the Constitutional Court in the legal system of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The cooperation between the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Venice Commission has begun in 1997, and has been intensified since 2002, when Bosnia and Herzegovina became a member of the Council of Europe and acceded to the Partial Agreement of the Council of Europe Establishing the European Commission for Democracy through Law in 1990.
The judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mr. Zlatko M. Knežević is the permanent member of the Venice Commission on behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2013.
