The cycle of the workshops started in Mostar with ten representatives from CSOs and activists from Mostar. Together with our partner, we will continue with the trainings in other local communities of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This manual aims to bring complex criminal law matters closer to citizens, the general public and Bosnia and Herzegovina's civil sector and enable their right to report these criminal acts. Namely, every citizen has the right and obligation to report the execution of a criminal offence if they know about it. In this sense, this manual should clearly explain what these criminal acts mean, their elements, how and to whom the report is submitted, and what the evidence may be.
The manual is, therefore, not intended to instruct criminals proceedings before the competent judiciary but to help understanding the complexity of the matter for citizens and the public interested in how to use in practice the right and obligation to report criminal offences, which are now regulated by amendments to the Criminal Code of BiH.
The manual in BHS language can be found on the link Priručnik.
The manual is the continuation of the project “Calling War Atrocities by their Right Name in the Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina” that started in 2019. Forum Civil Peace Service (forumZFD) and TRIAL International, as two organizations active in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the field of transitional justice and dealing with the past, have initiated in 2019 a constructive discourse on the necessity to enact a law to ban denial of genocide, the Holocaust, crimes against humanity or war crimes, in the attempt to establish and maintain open discussions with various stakeholders and relevant groups on this topic but also, ultimately, a broader dialogue and raising of social and political awareness of the topic of dealing with the past. In 2022 the cooperation started with the association Network for Building Peace (a network of 220 civil society organizations and schools in BiH) to intensify work on problems related to the denial of genocide, war crimes and the glorification of war criminals in local communities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and encouraging the participation of citizens in the processes of dealing with the past.
The previous High Representative, Valentin Inzko, enacted changes to the Criminal Code of BiH in July of 2021, thus enacting the ban on public approval, denial, gloss trivialization and justification of war crimes, crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity or a war crime established by a final judgement. However, since then, the BiH judiciary hasn't prosecuted a single case of this kind.
