Enforced disappearances: BiH authorities must provide compensation to families

Supported by TRIAL, several families of missing persons from Vogošća have just obtained justice before the UN. The Human Rights Committee now requests Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to establish the fate and whereabouts of 13 missing persons, to bring to justice those responsible for the crimes, and to provide adequate compensation to the victims. TRIAL welcomes the UN decision and specifically calls on BiH to establish proper tools for providing adequate compensation to the families.

Thirteen cases won before the UN on behalf of families of disappeared

Four years ago, TRIAL filed complaints against BiH before the HRC on behalf of the families of 13 BiH citizens who went missing in 1992 after they had been detained and subjected to torture and enforced disappearance. The Human Rights Committee (HRC) has now declared BiH responsible for not having effectively investigated the arbitrary deprivations of liberty, ill treatments and enforced disappearances. The HRC now requests Bosnia and Herzegovina to:

·       establish the fate and whereabouts of the 13 missing persons,

·       bring to justice those responsible for the crimes,

·       ensure that the 27 relatives receive adequate compensation

·    amend the existing legal framework to make sure that compensation for relatives is not conditioned with obtaining a death certificate.

The 27 family members of the disappeared welcome these important UN decisions that put and end to a 20-year long quest for justice before domestic courts.

Bosnia and Herzegovina must do more to provide compensation to the victims

TRIAL nevertheless calls on the State to create and implement an efficient mechanism to provide adequate compensation to the victims, in accordance to its international obligations.

“The HRC’s decisions adopted following individual complaints from Bosnian citizens are a relatively new phenomenon. The first decisions of the Committee on Bosnia and Herzegovina have been rendered in 2013 only, and now 18 such condemnations of Bosnia and Herzegovina have already been made”, recalls Lejla Mamut, TRIAL’s Human Rights Coordinator in BiH. “Considering the large number of UN decisions that are still expected, especially regarding families of the missing persons, it is of the utmost priority that the State create and implement new tools and guidelines on how to ensure a full compliance with UN standards”, adds Lejla Mamut.

The victims of enforced disappearance

The cases concern the enforced disappearances of 13 nationals of BiH in the course of months May to June 1992 in the area of Sarajevo. Even though the 27 relatives of the missing persons reported the disappearances and called for justice and truth about their fates and whereabouts, two decades later, the relatives have no information about their missing family-members. Having exhausted all possibilities on the domestic level, the relatives turned to TRIAL to bring their cases before the UN.

The decisions

On 4 September, the HRC issued a decision on the Ibrahim Duric’s case. The HRC found BiH internationally responsible for the violation of several provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Committee noted that: “State party has not provided information to the applicants as to the status of the investigation of Ibrahim Duric’s disappearance, or as to the specific measures undertaken to investigate his disappearance and bring to justice those responsible“. Furthermore, the HRC reiterated that forcing relatives of disappeared persons to declare their family members dead in order to receive compensation constitutes a form of inhumane and degrading treatment.

On the same date, the HRC also issued a decision on the Selimovic and others case. The Committee declared that the State is responsible for not having effectively investigated the arbitrary deprivation of liberty, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance of the 12 men, and also for having subjected the 25 applicants to inhumane and degrading treatment because it has not unveiled the truth about the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.

Context

30,000 people have been victims of enforced disappearance during the war in BiH from 1992 to 1995. According to the International Commission for Missing Persons and the International Committee of the Red Cross the fate of more than 8,000 victims remains unknown to date. Although it is one of the measures set by the HRC in previous cases, payment of adequate compensation to families has never been dully implemented in practice.