Access to Justice: Facing the Past and Confidence Building for the Future



30 June 2009 – Today in Sarajevo the Minister of Justice, Bariša Čolak, and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in BiH,  Christine McNab, have signed " Access to Justice: Facing the Past and Confidence Building for the Future " project document. The project is a joint effort of UNDP, the BiH Ministry of Justice and the BiH Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees with a view to enhancing access to BiH judicial institutions and services for regular users of courts' of law services and a systematic approach to outstanding challenges in access to justice.

"Access to Justice: Facing the Past and Future Confidence Building" project consists of two components – transitional justice and confidence building in BiH. Expected outcomes of the project are legal awareness raising, access of individuals to free legal aid and communication capacity building in judicial institutions, in cooperation with civil society organizations. Besides other things, the project will include micro capital grants for civil society, launching pilot-projects in transitional justice and designing of the BiH transitional justice strategy."

The value of the project is USD 5.5 million, and UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery has provided USD 2.6 million.     

"A Guide through Transitional Justice in BiH" has been promoted at the press conference taking place on the occasion of project signing."

"A Guide through Transitional Justice in BiH" is a unique and comprehensive document covering transitional justice initiatives having been implemented in BiH and gives an overview of civil society organisations that are active in this field."

It is one of the components implemented within "Supporting National Capacities in Transitional Justice Process in BiH" Project, and, as such, it helped successful development of one of the most important processes in BiH – facing the past.