prijava
SARAJEVO, October 22 (FENA) - The overall effectiveness of the judiciary in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which both the public and the judiciary already consider low, declined last year, especially in the fight against corruption, the results of the Judicial Effectiveness Index of BiH for 2020 showed (Index).
The Index, developed by the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Measure project to support monitoring and evaluation, is calculated based on three data sources: BiH citizens surveyed, judges and prosecutors surveyed, and administrative data from the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC).
USAID Mission Director Courtney Chubb said public trust and the confidence of judges and prosecutors in the justice system in Bosnia and Herzegovina are essential to a functioning democracy.
“A further decline in the effectiveness of the judiciary will jeopardize the development of BiH and hopes for Euro-Atlantic integration in the future. We hope that the new leadership of the HJPC will use the Index and make positive changes in the judicial system and processes,” added Chubb.
The Index also shows that the perception of judges and prosecutors on the effectiveness of the judiciary significantly deteriorated in 2020, which is accompanied by a decline in the value of indicators based on data on the management of court cases of the HJPC. This is the second year in a row that the perception of judges and prosecutors about the effectiveness of the BiH judiciary is declining.
However, the lowest number of both reported and resolved corruption cases since the launch of the Index in 2015 is particularly worrying. As can be seen from the administrative data, although the number of new cases is declining, judicial resources are increasing. The time required to resolve cases and the increase in the number of unresolved cases in first instance courts and prosecutor's offices thus reduce the effectiveness of the judiciary.
At the same time, the USAID Judicial Effectiveness Index recommended that judicial actors, primarily the HJPC BiH, take corrective measures to strengthen public confidence through more effective processing of corruption and high crime cases, USAID said.
(FENA) A. B.
