Composition (Article VII of Annex 6)

Unlike the Constitutional Court, international judges of the Human Rights Chamber made up the majority and the ratio was 8:6. Out of the six domestic judges, four were appointed by the Federation of BiH and two by the Republika Srpska. However, Article VII of the BiH Constitution did not precisely define the internal state authority in charge of appointing the judges. The international judges were appointed by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in agreement with the contracting parties under Annex 6. The Committee of Ministers was also appointing the President of Human Rights Chamber. All members of the Human Rights Chamber had to be distinguished lawyers possessing qualifications required for appointment to high judicial office. They were appointed for a term of five years and could be reappointed.⁴¹¹ The Members of the Chamber appointed after the transfer of responsibilities to BiH, pursuant to Article XIV of Annex 6, were to be appointed by the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.⁴¹²

Article VII.2 explicitly refers to Resolution (93)6 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe dated 9 March 1993. Therein, the Council of Europe envisages the procedure which is to be followed by the European non-member states seeking assistance for setting up a court or similar judicial body for the control of respect for human rights within its internal legal system. The mandate of the said judicial body will be limited until the respective state’s accession to the Council of Europe.⁴¹³ At the request of a European non-member state, the Committee of Ministers may, after consultation with the Strasbourg authorities, appoint specially qualified persons to such a judicial body.⁴¹⁴ The number of foreign experts must be higher than the number of domestic experts.⁴¹⁵ The said judicial body shall, inter alia, apply the substantive law from the ECHR.⁴¹⁶