BiH: amicus brief to the ECHR in case lodged by TRIAL
On 18 January 2013, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and The REDRESS Trust (REDRESS) submitted an amicus curiae brief to the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Mujkanović et al. v. Bosnia Herzegovina lodged by TRIAL.
The case concerns 11 applications submitted by TRIAL to the Court between September 2008 and December 2010 regarding the disappearance of individuals during the 1992-1995 war in the former Yugoslavia.
The applicants complain, on behalf of their missing relatives, that Bosnia and Herzegovina has failed to fulfil its procedural obligation to investigate their enforced disappearance, torture and death. Among other things, they further submit that the authorities have, for many years, refused to engage, acknowledge or assist in their efforts to find out what happened to their loved ones, and that this amounts to a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment.
The applicants also allege violations of Articles 6, 8, 13 and 14 of the Convention.
OMCT and REDRESS intervened in this case in order to address the following legal issues:
(a) The nature of the link between enforced disappearance and the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment; and
(b) The relationship between the continuing nature of enforced disappearance and the content of effective remedy and reparation for relatives of those who have been disappeared.
For further information:
- Read the amicus curiae brief
- Read the facts of the case as stated by the ECHR
- Take a look at TRIAL’s applications in this case
