OHR

PBS Law Must Be Harmonised

As you know, the FBiH Parliament must fully
align its legislation with the Public Broadcasting System Legislation
adopted by the BiH Parliament on
5 October
2005. This is a key requirement if BiH is
to move ahead with the Stabilisation and Association (SAA)
negotiations. 

There have been media reports of proposed amendments to
the Federation Radio-Television Law which, if adopted by the FBiH
HoR, would mean that it is not in harmony with the State law. These
amendments, if adopted, would place the whole process in
jeopardy.     

If this system is to become
operational, then Entity-level legislation, harmonised with
the State-level legislation, must be passed. Without this the SAA
requirement will not have been fulfilled.

FBiH
Parliament  Must  Be Allowed To
Discuss Principles of Local Self-Government

As you know, the Amendments to the FBiH Constitution related to
Local Self-Government and the Law on Principles of Local
Self-Government have languished for two years now at Government
and Committee stages – without Parliament having a chance to finally
endorse this initiative.

In a positive step, the proposed Amendments to the FBiH
Constitution and the Proposed Law on Principles of Local Self-Government have
finally entered parliamentary procedure. The OHR calls on the chairmen of
both houses of the FBiH Parliament to place the interests of citizens first
by putting this legislation up for debate in the FBiH legislature at the next
session. 

The current legislation in the FBiH doesn’t conclusively determine which
services to the citizen are to be provided by which level of Government. The
result is a lack of responsibility and financing, which means taxpayers don’t
get the services that they themselves are paying for.

The adoption of the Law on Principles of Local Self-Government at Entity
level will be another step towards fulfilling an international obligation
that BiH assumed when it ratified the European Charter on Local Self
Government on becoming a member of the Council of Europe. The RS
adopted its Law on Local Self Government in September 2004.

I should stress that the Law on Principles of Local Self-Government and the
associated Constitutional amendments were developed by BiH representatives in
cooperation with the Council of Europe.

OSCE

Ambassador Douglas Davidson in visit to Visegrad municipality
tomorrow

Ambassador Douglas Davidson, Head of the OSCE Mission to
Bosnia
and Herzegovina , will pay an official visit to
municipality of
Visegrad tomorrow, on 1 March 2006 . 

Ambassador Davidson will meet with Miladin Milicevic, Mayor of Višegrad, and
Redžep Jelacic, the Speaker of the Municipal Council of Višegrad. They
will use the opportunity to discuss the status of OSCE Mission’s programs
in the area of human rights, democratization, education and public
administration in Višegrad municipality.

Ambassador Davidson will visit Primary School “Mededa” where he will meet
with Slavco Sandev, Director of the School and use the opportunity to meet and
talk to teachers and children. Ambassador Davidson will also visit the

Basic Court

in
Visegrad and meet Radmila Bogdanovic, the President of the Court, to
talk about the importance of rule of law and the observance of human
rights norms and standards at the municipal level.

EUFOR

No statement.