CCPR/C/119/D/2206/2012
2.17 On 20 and 28 February 2006, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Commission on Missing Persons sent two letters respectively to Vide Lale and Mrs.
Blagojević stating that they had searched their registry and come to the conclusion that Mrs.
Lale and Mrs. Popović were both missing persons. In the letter regarding Mrs. Lale, it was
incorrectly stated that she had gone missing on 2 August 1993. The letters further stated
that none of the family members had contacted the State and Federal Commissions, and
requested that those institutions be contacted. The Commission added that it had forwarded
the letters to the Federal Ministry of Justice and all the Cantonal Ministries of the Interior
requesting information from them about Mrs. Lale and Mrs. Popović. The authors have not
received any information about the outcome of the requests sent to the Ministries to date.
2.18 Following the complaint sent by the President of the Association to the
Constitutional Court regarding the non-enforcement of the Court’s decision of 13 July 2005,
the Court found on 27 May 2006 that the decision had not been fully enforced. It found that
all available information had been released to the authors but that the authorities had failed
to establish the Missing Persons Institute, the Fund for Support of Families of Missing
Persons and the Central Records of Missing Persons in accordance with the Law on
Missing Persons. As a result, the ruling was transmitted to the Prosecutor’s Office. To date,
however, nobody has been prosecuted for the lack of implementation of the decision of the
Court.6
2.19 On 31 March 2010, the Union of Associations of Families of Detained and Missing
Persons of Republika Srpska sent a letter to the parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina and the government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina seeking the
enforcement of, among other decisions, the 13 July 2005 decision of the Constitutional
Court. In the letter, the Union requested the relevant authorities to deliver all information
about the circumstances of the disappearances of persons of Serbian origin, in particular
whether they had been victims of a war crime, who had committed those crimes and which
persons had organized them. There has been no response to date.
2.20 On 2 November 2010, the Missing Persons Institute issued two certificates
confirming that Mrs. Lale and Mrs. Popović had been registered as missing persons by the
Office for Tracing Missing Persons of the Republka Srpska, and that they remained missing.
Mrs. Lale’s certificate incorrectly states that she has been missing since 30 July 1992. This
is the last official documentation received by the authors concerning the case of their
mothers.
2.21 As regards compensation, the Fund for Victims under the Law on Missing Persons
has not yet been established. The authors submit that, even if the fund were to be
established, it would only provide for welfare “disability pensions” and not for measures of
compensation in compliance with international standards. Moreover, the right to financial
support for the authors would be extremely limited as article 12 of the Law on Missing
Persons prescribes that financial support cannot be received concurrently with support
based on other grounds. According to the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, support
under article 12 includes pension, social welfare, veteran disability insurance and income
from work. As both authors have a minimum income they would be prevented from
receiving any financial support from the fund. The authors are residents of Republika
Srpska and thus not eligible for social welfare in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
They are also not eligible for any compensation available in Republika Srpska. The authors
have consequently not received any form of compensation for the alleged enforced
disappearance of their mothers.
2.22 The authors argue that they have exhausted all available domestic remedies dealing
with the issue of missing persons in order to shed light on the fate of their mothers. They
further refer to the findings of the 13 July 2005 decision by the Constitutional Court of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which the Court acknowledged the lack of existence of
effective local remedies and to the ruling of the same Court on 26 May 2006, declaring that
the relevant authorities failed to enforce the decision concerned.
6
Under article 239 of the 2003 Bosnian Criminal Code failure to enforce decisions of the
Constitutional Court is a criminal offence.
5