CCPR/C/113/D/2028/2011 2.6 The armed conflict came to an end in December 1995, when the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina entered into force.4 2.7 In 2000, the author returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2001, she went to ICRC in Ključ to report that her son was still missing. Today, Mr. Ičić continues to be registered in the ICRC database as a person “unaccounted for”. The author also joined the Association of Families of Missing Person from Prijedor (Izvor). As member of this organization, she participated in several manifestations and undertook numerous démarches to report the enforced disappearance of her son to various authorities, and requested the intervention of those authorities to establish his fate and whereabouts and to obtain justice and redress. 2.8 In 2002, the author and three of her children gave ICRC in Sanski Most DNA samples to facilitate the identification process of mortal remains of her son. 2.9 In 2004, the author reported her son’s enforced disappearance and submitted a tracing request to the Federal Commission for Tracing Mission Persons.5 The author claims that ICRC has shared the information concerning the enforced disappearance of her son with the local authorities since 1992. Although they were aware of his disappearance and had access to relevant information, no ex officio effective investigation has been carried out in order to locate him, to make known his fate and whereabouts or, in the event of his death, to locate, exhume, identify and return to his family his mortal remains. Those responsible have not been summoned, indicted or convicted. 2.10 On 6 December 2006, the author obtained a decision of the Municipal Court in Sanski Most, by which her son was declared dead, fixing as the date of his death 10 June 1992. The Municipal Court noted that two witnesses had stated that he had been last seen on 10 June 1992, within the group of residents of Trnopolje that had been taken to detention camps, and that later they had learned from former inmates that the author’s son had been brought to Omarska detention camp. The author claims that she had to undergo this painful procedure, as it was the only way for her to alleviate a particularly difficult material situation. She submits that obtaining a certificate of death was de facto compulsory in order to accede to a disability pension in the Republika Srpska, pursuant to article 25 of the Law on the Protection of Civilian Victims of War and article 190 of the Law on Administrative Procedure. Against this background, she had no option but to request a declaration that her son was dead, despite having no certainty of his fate or whereabouts. 2.11 On 4 March 2008, Ms. Ičić applied to the Human Rights Commission of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, claiming violation of articles 3 (prohibition of torture) and 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as well as articles II.3 (b) and (f) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Constitutional Court decided to join together several applications submitted by other members of Izvor and relatives of missing persons, and therefore dealt with them as one collective case. 2.12 On 13 May 2008, the Constitutional Court concluded that the applicants of the collective case had been relieved from exhausting domestic remedies before ordinary 4 5 4 In accordance with the Dayton Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. Brčko District was formally inaugurated on 8 March 2000 under the exclusive sovereignty of the State and international supervision. The author has provided a copy of a certificate issued by the Federal Commission on Missing Persons on 20 February 2008 stating that her son has been registered as a missing person since 10 June 1992 and that this information was based on data that derives from, among other sources, the perpetrators themselves, ICRC, prisoners and family members.