INSTITUTION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 7.3.6. Status rights of convicted persons In 2019 the Ombudsman received a number of complaints related to resolving certain status issues of persons deprived of liberty, such as obtaining an ID card, registration and change of residence, assistance in obtaining documentation necessary to exercise the right to pension and other status issues. Persons deprived of liberty must be able to access the documents they need to regulate their status. Ombudspersons noticed certain problems that persons deprived of liberty have, related to access to documents, or registration and change of residence, as it will be presented below. Example: The Ombudsman processed a complaint filed by a convicted person 299 who could not exercise his right to pension. Namely, the prisoner's proxy addressed the Federal Pension Insurance Fund to obtain a listing comprising the data about the accelerated pension benefit payment by the prisoners ex-employers into the pension fund . Having summarized all the facts and evidence collected during its investigation the Ombudsman issued a recommendation 300 to the Federal Ministry of Interior and the minister of the Ministry of Interior of Sarajevo Canton. The Federal Ministry of Interior failed to answer and in the meantime the prisoner's proxy informed the Ombudsman that the prisoner reached the age of 65, which made him entitled to pension anyway irrespective of the fact that he would enjoy more favorable conditions had he retired according to accelerated pension benefit scheme. Example: Ombudspersons opened their investigation based on a complaint lodged by a prisoner301 serving her sentence in Tuzla Prison who applied to the Ministry of Interior of Police Administration Novi Travnik to issue her new personal ID card as she had lost her previous one prior to her referral to serve her sentence. However, the Police Administration Novi Travnik never replied to her application. In the meanwhile she become entitled to the use of benefits outside the prison, but without her ID card she cannot exercise this or other rights. She is a mother of a minor child (16 months old baby), so she fears that all these delays in issuance of ID card can deprive her of the contact with her child. In the course of their investigation Ombudspersons were informed that the complainant had exercised her right, because shortly after the Ombudsman's intervention she was furnished with a decision declaring the ID card invalid and the mobile team of the Travnik Police Administration came to Tuzla Prison to carry out the procedure for issuing a new ID card. Example: Ombudspersons opened an investigation upon a complaint 302 lodged by a prisoner serving his sentence in Foča Prison related to difficulties he is facing in registration of the residence as the Administration Department of the Ministry of Interior of Tuzla Canton does not allow it. The Ombudsman's investigation revealed that the first-instance body adopted a decision refusing the application of the complainant for registration of the residence because he failed to furnish all required documentation under the BiH Law on Temporary and Permanent Residence 303. The second-instance body accepted the complainant's appeal and returned the application to the firstinstance body to repeated decision-making with suggestion to grant the complainant's request for residence registration at the address of the Social Welfare Center Tuzla which points out that the Ž-SA-07-297/19 No.: P-129/18 of 07June 2018 301 Ž- SA-07-1226/19 302 Ž-BL-07-978/19 303 Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, no. 32/2001, 56/2008 and 58/2015 299 300 74