ANNUAL REPORT ON THE RESULTS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE INSTITUTION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA IV CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights puts an obligation before Bosnia and Herzegovina to respect an individual's civil and political rights, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, electoral rights and the right to a fair trial. Aware of the fact that in the past ten years the largest number of registered complaints in the Institution related to the violation of the rights by the judiciary and administration, in 2019 the Ombudspersons decided to establish a special Department to deal with the exercise of civil and political rights in the area of judiciary and administration. In this regard, the area of judiciary and administration is covered in a separate chapter of the Annual Report. The largest number of complaints in 2019, as in previous years, was registered within the Department for Monitoring the Exercise of Political and Civil Rights. Registered complaints were processed for violation of the rights to which they relate: access to information (275), property relations (169), police (154), inspections (80), government and ministerial appointments (56), migration and asylum (52), war damages (50), public documents (42), media and freedom of information (8), free legal aid (5), corruption (4), freedom of assembly (3) and religious freedoms (2). Within this Department, a total of 978 cases were registered, which is 88 cases less compared to 2018, due to the separation of the Department. 1,066 were transferred from previous years, so that in total there were 2,044 cases. 544 cases were completed. VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHTS Access to information Property rights Police Inspections Government and ministerial appointments Migrations and asylum War damages Public documents Media and freedom of information Free legal aid Corruption Free assembly Religious freedoms Total Number of cases 275 169 154 80 56 52 50 42 8 5 4 3 2 978 There are 325 cases registered at the Central Office of the Institution in Banja Luka, 397 at the Sarajevo Regional Office, 65 at the Mostar Regional Office, 90 at the Brčko Regional Office, and 101 registered at the Livno Field Office. Within the Department, 175 recommendations were issued. Most of the issued recommendations were related to violation of the right of access to information (57), followed by government and 17