News 2021

Natrag Council of Europe anti-torture Committee carries out visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina focussed on law enforcement agencies

A delegation of the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) carried out a visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from 17 to 27 September 2021.

The primary focus of the visit was to examine the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty by police agencies at the State, Entity and Cantonal levels. The treatment and conditions of detention of remand prisoners held in several prison establishments were also examined. Further, the CPT’s delegation looked into the effectiveness of investigations into allegations of police ill-treatment as carried out by prosecutorial authorities and police oversight mechanisms in the Federation of BiH (FBiH) and notably the Sarajevo Canton.

In the course of the visit, the delegation met Saliha Đuderija, Assistant Minister of Human Rights and Refugees, as well as senior officials of the Ministries of Interior of the Federation of BiH and of the Sarajevo Canton. It also held consultation with Mr Halil Lagumdžija President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council and Ms Sabina Sarajlija, Chief Prosecutor of the Sarajevo Canton.

At the end of the visit, the delegation presented its preliminary observations to the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The visit was carried out by the following members of the CPT:

Therese Rytter, 2nd Vice-President of the CPT (Head of delegation)
Ömer Müslümanoğlu
Alexander Minchev
Juan Carlos da Silva
Chila van der Bas.

They were supported by Christian Loda of the Committee's Secretariat and assisted by one expert, Boštjan Škrlec, Vice-President of Eurojust and former Director General at the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Slovenia.

The delegation visited the following places of deprivation of liberty: