Executive Summary
Within the BiH justice sector, the enforcement of criminal sanctions is a crucial component in
assessing the sector’s overall functionality, effectiveness, and compliance with international
human rights standards. Further, an effective and credible system of execution of criminal
sanctions secures individual rights of incarcerated persons, the public’s safety, and improves
the confidence of citizens in the justice sector as a whole. For these reasons, the Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe Mission to BiH (Mission) has engaged its justice sector monitoring programme in assessing the prison system in BiH.
While the Mission’s monitoring of prison institutions in BiH since 2008 encompasses a number of aspects, this report focuses on allegations of torture, ill-treatment and inappropriate use of disciplinary proceedings. This monitoring, along with the Mission’s other prison
advocacy and reform, form part of the broader effort to establish a National Preventative
Mechanism, as prescribed by the Optional Protocol for the Convention Against Torture, as
well as to support the expeditious implementation of the BiH Justice Sector Reform Strategy.
This report consists of six sections. The introductory sections provide background on the
Mission’s engagement in prison issues and monitoring methodology, as well as an overview
of the prison system in BiH. The following section looks at standards and allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and covers such issues as treatment and professionalism of prison staff
and inter-prisoner violence. Section IV examines prisoners’ complaints and disciplinary proceedings given the important links between these and the prevention of ill-treatment. Likewise, section V canvases the channels of communication within prison personnel structures
and with prisoners.
Finally, recommendations directed towards prison directors, administrations and relevant
ministries can be found in Section VI. These extensive recommendations range from ensuring
adequate treatment programmes for prisoners to revising ineffective complaint mechanisms.
The recommendations aim to alleviate the following identified contributing factors towards
violence against prisoners by prison staff, as well as inter-prisoner violence:
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prison overcrowding;
the lack of sufficient numbers of prison staff, guards in particular;
the lack of professionalism of prison personnel, again, guards in particular:
the lack of effective accountability mechanisms, and knowledge thereof;
the lack of use of and trust in the complaints mechanisms;
the lack of appropriate treatment for drug addiction;
the lack of meaningful activities, in particular work opportunities and education.
Additionally, a meaningful and prompt response by prison management towards any form of
violence within the prison walls was also identified as key towards reducing violence. Fundamentally, this issue, and the aforementioned concerns, are all exacerbated by the fragmentation of the BiH prison system which allows for considerable autonomy within each prison.
The Mission intends for this report to serve as a capacity building tool for future endeavours
in prison monitoring, but first and foremost, it is hoped that this report will encourage those
within the prison system to tackle the identified concerns to create a prison system free from
ill-treatment and which respects the basic human rights of incarcerated persons.
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