ANNUAL REPORT ON THE RESULTS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE INSTITUTION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
and peace as a special violation of public order and peace. To date, these recommendations have
not been incorporated into the relevant amendments to said laws.
Ombudspersons do not notice any progress in this area as complaints about violations of rights in
this area continue to be registered. In 2019, a total of eight complaints were registered 107 and three
recommendations issued 108.
4.9. Free legal aid
Free legal aid in Bosnia and Herzegovina is organized in such a way that free legal aid institutes
have been established in eight cantons in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while in the
Republika Srpska free legal aid is provided by the Republika Srpska Free Legal Aid Center (for
the entire Republika Srpska). In their 2017 Annual Report, Ombudspersons emphasized the
importance of adopting the Law on Free Legal Aid of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 109 The adoption
of this Law enables equal access to court for all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, irrespective
of their financial status. Article 7 of the said Law stipulates that the competent body for providing
free legal aid before the bodies and institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the Office for the
Provision of Free Legal Aid of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is an internal organizational unit
within the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, the Office has an important
role in providing free legal aid, but only in relation to proceedings before the bodies and institutions
of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, Ombudspersons express concern about the fact that the Office has not yet been
established, and that legal assistance is provided by administrative inspectors, as their additional
activity and on an ad-hoc basis. In direct and telephone contacts with citizens, the representatives
of the Institution point out and instruct the parties to make use of free legal aid.
In 2019 the Ombudsman received 5 complaints related to free legal aid 110, but did not issue any
recommendations in this matter.
4.10. Freedom of assembly
Freedom of assembly constitute the right enshrined by the Constitution of Bosnia and
Herzegovina 111, the Constitution of Republika Srpska, 112 the Constitution of the Federation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, 113 Statute of Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 114 laws on public
assemblies at the level of cantons (10 in total, while in Zenica-Doboj Canton the procedure of the
adoption of this law is ongoing), at the level of Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina and at
the level of Republika Srpska.
Ž-SA-05-976/19, Ž-SA-05-338/19, Ž-SA-05-550/19, Ž-SA-05-1043/19; Ž-SA-05-1187/19; Ž-BL-05-276/19, ŽBL-05-357/19, Ž-BR-05-4/19
108
P-47/19 dated 05 March 2019, P-206/19 dated 04 October 2019, P-281/19 dated 24 December 2019
109
Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina no. 83/2016
110
Ž-BL-05-328/19, Ž-BL-05-470/19, Ž-BL-05-474/19, Ž-BL-05-740/19, Ž-BL-05-758/19
111
Article II 3. Item i)
112
Article 30
113
Article 2. (1) l)
114
Article 14 paragraph 1
107
35
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