Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina is competent for the execution of criminal sanctions, detention and other measures pronounced by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Ministry is competent for the execution of the legally binding decisions of the foreign courts for the acts regulated by the Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and execution of the sanctions pronounced by the Court of BiH against the foreign citizens, or persons without citizenship, unless there is a special law of BiH or an international agreement that prescribes some other measures.  

• Detention Unit

• Institute for Execution of Criminal Sanctions, Detention and other Measures of BiH

• Supervision over the work of the penitentiary institution /inspection/

• Treatment from the Aspect of Human Rights

• Conditional release

• Pardon

• Right to transfer

• Privileges

• Professional education

  Detention Unit

  

The Detention Unit at the state level is intended for the accommodation of the persons serving the detention ordered by the Court of BiH, and persons transferred from the Detention Unit of the ICTY. The majority of cases are the war crimes. The Detention Unit also accommodates the persons against whom the proceeding is conducted by the Department II – Department for the organized crime, economic crime and corruption. At the moment, it is the only institution of this kind in Bosnia and Herzegovina that meets the European standards. It contains 20 cells, 13 square meters each, and there are plans for enlargement for 12 more cells.

The Detention Unit of the Court of BiH was opened in May 2005 and at the moment, there are 38 authorized detention officials employed there. They are all obliged to know and apply the European Convention on Human Rights. The Detention police officers are constantly trained in the application of the modern European prison rules.

Beside the internal inspections, the rights and obligations of the detainees in this institution are supervised by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture /CPT/, International Red Cross /IRC/ and other international organizations that deal with the human rights issues. So far, there has been no case of abusing or other kind of restriction of the rights of the detainees.

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Institute for Execution of Criminal Sanctions, Detention and other Measures  of BiH

Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina has initiated and is implementing the project of construction of the Institute for execution of the criminal sanctions, detention and other measures of BiH.
This will be the only penitentiary institution at the state level of this kind that will meet the European standards for the accommodation of the convicts, which is especially important if we consider the fact that the existing entity penitentiary institutions are overcrowded and with inadequate capacities. The state prison, with the capacity of 300 beds, will accommodate both prisoners and detainees of the Court of BiH.
In 2006 and 2007, 1, 6 million euros was approved from the budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the works on the infrastructure and for the preparation of the land for the construction. According to the assessment, the construction of the high security prison will cost 14,85 million euros, out of which 2 million euros are approved from the domestic budget funds in 2008. The majority of the financial resources are planned to be provided from the donor and credit funds.
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Supervision over the work of the penitentiary  

Inspection service of the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina supervises the work of the Detention Unit at the state level as well as all other penitentiary institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to identify the conditions and circumstances in which the detainees or prisoners serve the detention or prison sentence according to the decision or verdict of the Court of BiH.
Inspector is a civil servant with special authorities and the measures ordered by the inspector are obligatory for the penitentiary managers.
The inspection includes the control of the working plan and program of the penitentiaries, correct application of the  Law on Execution of Criminal Sanctions, Detention and other Measures and other regulations, that regulate the rightful and correct treatment of the detainees and prisoners, and realizing their guaranteed rights.   
In order to regulate the internal life in penitentiary institutions and realizing of the rights and duties, the Ministry of Justice of BiH has made 32 rulebooks, instructions, that is decisions  which contain over 1000 legal dispositions that regulate the complete work of the penitentiary institutions, from the moment of admission of the detainees or prisoners, to the moment of their release from detainment or serving the prison sentence. 

Treatment from the Aspect of Human Rights

Treatment with the detainees and prisoners from the aspect of human rights includes:

• Human treatment and respect of the human dignity;

• Maintaining the mental and physical health;

• Preventing of the torture and inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment;

• Preventing the discrimination based on the ethnic origin, race, color of skin, sex, sexual orientation,  language, religion or belief, political or other opinion, national and social origin, economic or other status;

• Right to religion;

• Right to information;

• Right to health protection;

• Right to clothing;

• Right to writing and receiving letters;

• Right to submitting requests, lodging complaints, and other documents;

• Right to enjoy an open space;

• Right to use the library;

• Right to free time activities (sport, cultural etc.);

• Right to work according to the possibilities of a penitentiary institution;

• Right to protection and insurance at work;

• Right to salary;

• Right to education and organizing of the classes for general and professional education and qualifying;

• Right to annual vacation;

• Right to communicate, visits, as well as other rights regulated by the Law and sub-law regulations.

Human rights of the detainees or prisoners are guaranteed by the Criminal Code of BiH and Law on Execution of Criminal Sanctions, Detention and other Measures, which is based on the valid international standards. Some of the documents that regulate and establish the principles and basis in the prison system are: European Prison Rules, United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms...

Conditional release

Conditional release of the convicts sentenced by the Court of BiH is approved by the Conditional Release Commission at the state level, which is appointed by the Minister of Justice of BiH. The commission is consisted of 5 members, 1 representative of the Court of BiH, 1 representative of the Ministry of Justice of BiH and 3 independent members from the relevant professional field. The Commission is appointed for the period of five years and it is independent in its work. 

Pardon

Article 119 of the Criminal Code of BiH states that pardon for the criminal offences prescribed by this Code can be granted by the decision of the Presidency of BiH pursuant to the Law. Therefore, the Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Pardon, was adopted /”Official Gazette of BiH”, No. 93/05/, which was determined by the competent authority for granting pardons, kinds of pardons, initiating of the proceedings and other matters. The article 21 prescribes that in order to act upon the request efficiently, the Minister of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina appoints the Commission for Pardons which acts from the moment of submitting of the request, establishes the competence, collects the relevant data and information, and makes the report about the request which, together with the request and reasoned proposal of the Ministry of Justice, delivers to the Presidency of BiH which decides on the request. 

Right to Transfer

If an inmate has served ½ of the sentence and spends his/her vacation within the family, he may, according to the law, submit a request for transfer to the other penitentiary institution in the entity where he/she lives or has got a residence. The right to transfer is regulated by the Rulebook on criteria for sending convicts to serve the prison sentences  (“Official Gazette of BiH” no. 34/05) and Rulebook on changes and supplements to the Rulebook on criteria for sending convicts to serve the prison sentences (“Official Gazette of BiH” no. 83/07).
The decision on the transfer is made by the Minister of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Privileges

The Law on Execution of Criminal Sanctions contains the regulations which enable granting privileges to the convicted persons for good behavior and devotion to work. The privileges can be used within and outside of the penitentiary institution, and are approved by the manager of penitentiary institution. Rulebook on privileges and vacation of prisoners that serve the prison sentence in the Institute for execution of criminal sanctions, detention and other measures of Bosnia and Herzegovina  (“Official Gazette of BiH” no. 34/05), Rulebook on changes and supplements to the Rulebook on privileges and vacation of prisoners that serve the prison sentence in the Institute for execution of criminal sanctions, detention and other measures of Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Official Gazette of BiH” no. 38/06) and Rulebook on changes and supplements to the Rulebook on privileges and vacation of prisoners that serve the prison sentence in the Institute for execution of criminal sanctions, detention and other measures of Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Official Gazette of BiH” no. 11/08) regulate the procedure and method of granting privileges, their duration, kind, as well as the way of their possible limitation. 

Professional education

The Law on Execution of Criminal Sanctions, in a special article, emphasizes the professional education and prescribes that the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in cooperation with entity Ministries of Justice, will set certain standards for each category of the prison staff and regarding that it may organize courses, seminars, consulting, and other kinds of professional development, in order to enable the prison staff to satisfy given standards. Therefore, the Rulebook and program of the professional exams (“Official Gazette of BiH” no. 56/05) were made and related changes, according to which is organized the procedure of professional exams for the prison staff of the Detention Unit at the state level. Through the different projects, the prison police officers are constantly trained on the implementation of the modern European prison rules.