Enforced Disappearance of Salih Dovadžija in October 1992

The case

In March 2012, TRIAL submitted a communication to the UN Human Rights Committee concerning the enforced disappearance of Mr. Salih Dovadžija occurred in October 1992. TRIAL acts on behalf of Mrs. Sakiba Dovadžija and Ms. Dalisa Dovadžija, who are respectively the wife and the daughter of Mr. Salih Dovadžija.

On or around 10 August 1992, Mr. Salih Dovadžija was seen for the last time alive by his wife and his daughter (at the time 5-month old), while he was serving as a member of the Territorial Defence of the BiH Army. According to eye-witnesses, Mr. Salih Dovadžija was seen for the last time alive in October 1992 at the frontline in Žuč. He was held by members of the Bosnian Serb forces (VRS) in life-threatening circumstances, subjected to ill-treatment and forced labour. The fate and whereabouts of Mr. Salih Dovadžija remain unknown since then and he is officially registered as a missing person before domestic and international institutions. To date, no one has been judged and sanctioned for the enforced disappearance of Mr. Salih Dovadžija.

Almost 20 years after the events, no ex officio, prompt, impartial, thorough and independent investigation has been undertaken by BiH authorities to locate the mortal remains of Mr. Salih Dovadžija or to identify, prosecute and sanction those responsible for the mentioned crimes. Mrs. Sakiba Dovadžija and Ms. Dalisa Dovadžija have undertaken several steps to obtain information about their loved one.

Since 1992 Mrs. Sakiba Dovadžija and Ms. Dalisa Dovadžija are undergoing deep and severe psychological stress to try to cope with what has happened to their family and the lacerating uncertainty on the whereabouts of Mr. Salih Dovadžija. As a consequence of her precarious state of health, Mrs. Sakiba Dovadžija has been diagnosed and is being treated for “mixed dissociative conversion disorder”. In the case of Ms. Dalisa Dovadžija, who was a few months old when these tragic events took place, she was forced to grow up without her father and even in the impossibility to adequately mourn him. This situation has affected her whole family life.

On 16 July 2007, the Constitutional Court of BiH, seized by several families of missing persons, including Mrs. Sakiba Dovadžija, declared that BiH violated the right not to be subjected to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment and the right to respect for private and family life of the relatives of missing persons.Accordingly, the Court ordered the domestic institutions concerned to disclose all available information on the fate and whereabouts of the missing people, including Mr. Salih Dovadžija.

In March 2011, TRIAL therefore submitted an individual communication to the United Nations Human Rights Committee asking it:

• to find that Mr. Salih Dovadžija is a victim of a violation of Article 2.3 (right to a remedy) in conjunction with Articles 6 (right to life), 7 (prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment), 9 (right to liberty and security of person), 10 (right to human treatment of people deprived of their liberty), and 16 (right to be recognized as a person before the law) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, due to the ongoing failure of BiH authorities to conduct an ex officio, prompt, impartial, independent and thorough investigation on his arbitrary deprivation of liberty, ill-treatment, and subsequent enforced disappearance, in order to establish his fate and whereabouts, as well as to identify those responsible for these crimes and to prosecute, judge and sanction them;

• to find that they are victims of a violation by BiH of Article 2.3 (right to a remedy) in conjunction with Article 7 (prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment) of the Covenant, because of the severe mental distress and anguish caused by the violations committed against Mr. Salih Dovadžija and the ongoing lack of information about the causes and circumstances of these events as well as on the progress and results of the investigations carried out by BiH authorities. Moreover, Mrs. Sakiba Dovadžija and Ms. Dalisa Dovadžija allege that the mentioned provisions are violated also in conjunction with Articles 17 and 23.1 of the Covenant, because of the disruption of their family life as a consequence of the arbitrary deprivation of liberty and the subsequent enforced disappearance of Mr. Salih Dovadžija. The mentioned violations have prevented Mrs. Sakiba Dovadžija and Ms. Dalisa Dovadžija from burying their loved one in accordance with their religious customs and beliefs. In the case of Ms. Dalisa Dovadžija, until 31 March 2010, all the mentioned provisions were violated in conjunction with Article 24.1 of the Covenant, as she was a minor.

• to request BiH to order independent investigations as a matter of urgency with a view to exhume, identify, respect and return to the family the mortal remains of Mr. Salih Dovadžija;

• to request BiH to bring the perpetrators of the arbitrary deprivation of liberty, ill-treatment, and subsequent enforced disappearance Mr. Salih Dovadžija before the competent ordinary tribunals for prosecution, judgment and sanction without any further delay; and

• to request BiH to ensure that Mrs. Sakiba Dovadžija and Ms. Dalisa Dovadžija obtain integral reparation and prompt, fair and adequate compensation for the harm suffered.

The Decision

On 22 July 2015 the UN Human Rights Committee issued a decision on the case,finding BiH responsible for the violation of several provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including the rights to life, personal liberty, and the prohibition of torture with regard to Mr. Salih Dovadžija. The Committee declared that the State is responsible for not providing information on the progress of the investigation into Mr. Dovadžija’s disappearance to his loved ones. The failure of the State to unveil the truth on Mr. Dovadžija’s fate and whereabouts exposed his wife and daughter to anguish and distress amounting to inhumane and degrading treatment.

The Committee requested BiH to:

• Establish the fate and whereabouts of Mr. Salih Dovadžija;
• Bring to justice without unnecessary delay those responsible for Mr. Dovadžija’s enforced disappearance;
• Provide the wife and daughter of Mr. Dovadžija with adequate compensation and measures of satisfaction;
• Provide the wife and daughter of Mr. Dovadžija with the necessary psychological rehabilitation and medical care;
• Prevent similar violations in the future and ensure that investigations into allegations of enforced disappearance are accessible to the families of missing persons.

In early 2016, the remains of Mr. Salih Dovadžija were found in Pale, near Sarajevo. In November 2016, his wife and daughter were finally able to bury him.

Since then, Ms Dovadžija has also been allowed a monthly pension.

The General Context

It is estimated that between 100,000 and 200,000 persons died as a consequence of the conflict (1992-1995) in BiH and that between 25,000 and 30,000 were victims of enforced disappearance. Approximately 10,000 people remain missing to date.

To date no one has been convicted, prosecuted and sanctioned for the enforced disappearance of Mr. Salih Dovadžija, thus fostering an overall climate of impunity. Up to this day, Mrs. Sakiba Dovadžija and Ms. Dalisa Dovadžija have not received any information on whereabouts of the mortal remains of Mr. Salih Dovadžija and they have not had the possibility to mourn and bury him in accordance with their religious customs and beliefs.