Competencies

The main regulation on the competencies of the Human Rights Chamber is Article VIII.1 of Annex 6,⁴¹⁷ in conjunction with Article II.2 of Annex 6.⁴¹⁸ The Human Rights Chamber was assigned a special task to establish whether there were violations of human rights and freedoms according to the ECHR, which are evident or which are alleged to have been committed, as well as whether there was discrimination in the application of the rights safeguarded under the international conventions attached to Annex 6, if the contracting parties are to be held responsible for those violations. Any person could address the Human Rights Chamber directly or through an application submitted to the Ombudsmen. Except for individuals, the contracting parties, non-governmental organisations or group of persons could also claim a violation of the rights under Article II.2 of Annex 6. First, the Human Rights Chamber was deciding on the admissibility of an application and was giving particular priority to allegations of especially severe or systematic violations.⁴¹⁹ The proceedings used to be completed either by an amicable resolution of the matter, a report – which happened only in one case (CH/97/35) – or by a decision with the statement of reasons on the existence or non-existence of the violation of obligations under Annex 6. The Human Rights Chamber was authorised to issue a measure with the purpose of correcting the violation (remedies) or a measure on compensation for damage.⁴²⁰ The decisions of the Human Rights Chamber – with an exception to the internal revision procedure (Article X.2) – were final and binding, and the contracting parties were obliged to enforce them in accordance with Articles XI.3 and 6.⁴²¹

Applications submitted to the Human Rights Chamber were an accurate reflection of the situation faced by the entire nation after the war: there were numerous claims regarding pre-war properties, which the applicants – very often against the will of the local population of other ethnic groups – wanted to repossess. Another essential complexity was related to the cases of applicants’ unsuccessful attempts to be reinstated to their previous employment positions. The reconstruction of devastated religious facilities was also the subject of the Human Rights Chamber’s decisions, as were the unsuccessful attempts of owners of foreign currency savings who were trying to get their savings back, which they had deposited with domestic banks before the war. Frequently, there were the cases – and what else could be expected – where the conflict between different ethnic or religious groups was also of certain significance. That was manifested in the manner in which the members of other ethnic groups were treated and such treatment was either discriminatory or in violation of their human rights. Thus, the Human Rights Chamber dealt with cases of unlawful deprivation of liberty, threats of execution, torture and inhuman treatment, and there were also cases related to missing persons, forced labour, unfair trials, irregularities in the process of privatisation of socially owned property and nationalisation, including cases where the applicants wanted to exercise their right to freedom of opinion and freedom of association. In several cases, the Human Rights Chamber had to deal with the activity of the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.