JNA pensions

Applications of former JNA military personnel filed with the Human Rights Chamber, who, following the breakout of the war in BiH, had not joined the professional service in the RBiH Army or the Federation of BiH Army, concern to a minor extent problems in the process of return, and to a greater extent the consequences of the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and disputes on the succession of obligations of the then federal institutions of public nature. Applicants complained to the Human Rights Chamber regarding their level of military pension, particularly when considering the pensions received in BiH by their colleagues who had been in the RBiH Army or Federation of BiH Army during the war.²⁴³⁰ In the respective cases, the Human Rights Chamber reached as far as the final boundaries of its territorial jurisdiction. Namely, the problem that these persons had was related to the non-existence of a regional agreement. That agreement should have regulated the issue of the division of obligations of this portion of social protection (pensions in particular), which arose in the then federal State and at the central governmental level, which vanished upon the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, the resolution of which was awaited for a long time in terms of signing an international agreement.²⁴³¹

In its respective cases, the Human Rights Chamber failed to find violations of the property rights of the applicants, or violations of the principle of prohibition of discrimination in connection to this right. Admittedly, the applicants had exercised their right to pension until April 1992 with the Institute for Social Insurance of Army Insurees in Belgrade. However, they were unable to exercise that right with the Pension and Disability Fund of BiH. In September 1992, the Republic of BiH enacted a decree with legal force, according to which the JNA pensioners would receive 50% of the amount of their former pension. This decree was confirmed as the Law of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in June 1994, and by Article 139 of the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance of the Federation of BiH which entered into force on 31 July 1998. The Chamber established that the fact that these pensioners, on humanitarian grounds, still do receive a certain portion of their respective pension, notwithstanding the fact that it amounts to solely 50% of the amount of their former pension, does not constitute a justified request, and, accordingly, it does not constitute interference with their right to property. Also, there are justified reasons as to why such treatment is not discriminatory, notwithstanding the fact that the applicants receive significantly lower pensions than their colleagues who had served in the Republic of BiH Army or the Federation of BiH Army who, by doing so, directly acquired the right to a pension from the Pension and Disability Fund of BiH.²⁴³²

In June 2001, the successor states of the former Yugoslavia entered into an Agreement on Succession Issues among the successor states of the former SFRY. In the Agreement, amongst other things, it regulated the issue of payment of social allowances in the so-called trans-border cases. Bosnia and Herzegovina ratified the Agreement at the end of 2001. The applicant in the case Bavčić et al. claimed that the legal situation had thus changed, and that, as a result, he was entitled to a full pension, notwithstanding the fact that he had not served in the Republic of BiH Army or the Federation of BiH Army, irrespective of his place of residence. The Human Rights Chamber accepted the applicant’s position that the State had committed itself to obligations arising from the Agreement. Thereby the pension claims of applicants against the JNA Pension Fund were replaced by claims against Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, at the time of deliberating on the application the Agreement has not still entered into force, resulting from the fact that the Republic of Croatia has not yet ratified it. Besides, where possible, international obligations arising from the Agreement had to be “transformed” into the obligations under the domestic law.²⁴³³