Introduction

Bosnia and Herzegovina received a set of instruments in Dayton for the protection of human rights with a potential that is unique in the world. When it comes to the UN Conventions on Human Rights, Bosnia and Herzegovina has a substantial advantage in efficiency when compared to other signatories to the mentioned conventions. The reason for this is the sweeping powers of the Human Rights Chamber and – presently the only one in existence – the BiH Constitutional Court, with the goal of implementing rights that were laid down in the aforementioned conventions.³⁸¹⁵ The extensive enacting clauses of decisions of both courts, including their possibility to issue orders for the enforcement of specific measures, by their intensity and directness, exceed even the capacities of the European Court, as well as those of the constitutional courts of other states.

Yet, there was a threat for these protection mechanisms to prove completely ineffective in reality, for, on one hand, the competent national actors opposed the implementation of human rights and freedoms as soon as it appeared contrary to their respective interests, and, on the other hand, the clear competencies and norms on powers with the goal of implementing these high standards were lacking. Therefore, the protection of human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina immediately after the Dayton has been losing its credibility.³⁸¹⁶

Under Annex 11, the IPTF was not stipulated as an executive authority; it should have served for the support, oversight, monitoring, investigating, counselling and training of the order and security authorities and the executive authorities of the Entities and to possibly assess whether public order and peace, i.e., security were threatened. In the beginning, no one placed great hopes on the OHR and OSCE. These two institutions, admittedly including the Ombudsmen of BiH, as well as the Human Rights Chamber, reported on a regular basis about the State and the Entities’ authorities violating human rights and freedoms, but no one got the impression that they wished to use their powers. Soon after the end of the war, primarily, it was IFOR, i.e., namely SFOR, that raised hopes, since their sweeping powers for the preservation of public security, not only in exclusively military areas, were laid down in Annex 1-A.³⁸¹⁷ For years the Human Rights Chamber and the BiH Constitutional Court had the additional support of different actors that were present here (OHR, SFOR, OSCE, IPTF); the objective was to permanently advance the respect for and implementation of their decisions.