Report: Are We Ticking the Right Boxes? – The BiH Ombudsman Institutions Reform Saga

Following the appointment of the three State Ombudsman in December 2008, a team of Populari analysts have researched what this reform has led to. Considering the importance of human rights protection mechanisms in Bosnia, we believe that a reform of this scale serves as a good example for analyzing the overall picture of how reforms are implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The main purpose of the Ombudsman institutions reform was to achieve the same standards of human rights protection mechanisms in both of Bosnia’s entities; to reduce the costs of having three separate Ombudsman institutions; and to avoid the risk of overlapping competencies. On the basis of these arguments, the issue became an important priority for Bosnia to join the EU. A relatively short timeframe was given to relevant stakeholders to decide the best model for the Ombudsman, which the Venice Commission assisted with. The fundamental postulate in planning the reform was to preserve the current level of human rights protection during the reform, and additionally, to preserve the knowhow of the existing Ombudsman institutions, particularly the FBiH Ombudsman. None of these objectives were met.

This report finds that, as result of the reform process, at the present time BiH has been left with three poorly-functioning Ombudsman offices had a lower level of human rights protection than before the reform process began. The main reason for this is the lack of analysis and planning done in implementing the reform, witch meant the international community was largely oblivious to the unintended consequences that would occur, and continued to hurry through the process in order to complete the process and “tick the right box”.

Report: Are We Ticking the Right Boxes? – The BiH Ombudsman Institutions Reform Saga (.pdf) >>>