REPORT ON ACTIVITIES OF HELSINKI COMMITTEE FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS IN BH IN RESPECT OF RENDERING
LEGAL ASSISTANCE
Reporting period: 01.01.1999. – 31.12.1999.

Introduction
The Helsinki Committee has been for already five years rendering free of charge legal assistance to all the citizens who addressed for it. This year, since May, a full time job lawyer has been engaged in this job, along with two assistants.
Totally, this year, 3,250 citizens addressed the Committee. 600 cases were taken over from the previous year.
In 85% of cases, the citizens asked for assistance either in respect of the housing issues or repossession of tenants’ rights or rights to own property. Other cases refer to labour relations, missing persons, to the issue of retirement-disability rights, and similar.

Observations

a) Parties
Despite waiting for months, the applicants asking for repossession of apartments – property for which they have tenants’ rights or are the owners of, have not been discourage. The fact that all possible law terms have expired long time ago and that their applications have not been considered or even if they were considered the decision on repossession of apartments have not been realised, made the parties more persistent in their claims.
The situation is even more complex because the holders of tenants’ rights – owners of the houses are sometimes retired people, unemployed people who have to pay rental fees, who live with relatives and friends in modest accommodation and at the same time having minimal or no money resources.
Many of them are coming to the Committee, although they have lawyers and other qualified assistants, because their attempts to realise their threatened rights mainly remained unresolved for many years.
The parties, while looking for evidence for themselves, have broaden their activities in searching for evidence for temporary tenants as well, thus taking over the role of a “leader of administrative procedure” just in order to speed up the procedure and to give to the Committee as many exact and written evidence as possible.
The parties come everyday to leaders of the procedures but rarely receive true information.

b) Domestic bodies
The Administration for Housing Issues as an administrative state body does not function properly, although its task is to conduct and implement the Law on Cessation of the Law on Abandoned Apartments. To the contrary, the Law is seriously put in question through the work of this administrative body.
There is nothing what is called autonomy of the law, and because of all this, the first instance organs should bear consequences.
The Committee has noticed that, the first instance organs, administration with its departments did nothing in their work to make the procedure more efficient, effective, comprehensive and based on all the principles foreseen by the law.
Apart from drastic violations of human rights and breach of law, no one on the part of first instance organs was either held responsible or borne the consequences of unlawful work. Most probably just because it is generally known that the responsibility lies exclusively on the first instance organs.
There are some steps forward in solving the housing issue, i.e. greater number of evictions, which did not happen owing to the efforts of the Administration for Housing Issues but owing to enormous efforts invested by the international institutions which, through their special engagement, render assistance both to parties and to this organ.
Having inspected each case, being under consideration of the Committee, mistakes, failures, untrue facts presented, understated, inconsistency, disharmony between disposition and explanation as well as intentionally missed information were noticed. The leaders of the procedures have lost their authority both with parties and with other institutions dealing with protection of human rights, because all the decisions brought on repossession of apartments and property as well as explanations of the decisions were so poor in facts that they could not present dignified legal document. This is surely the “result of the fact” that almost all of them use someone else’s apartments, this being the case of the Chiefs of Administration, Assistant Ministers for Housing Issues, Ministers without portfolio, officers.
More than 90% of decisions brought are identical, this breaching the principle of individuality, i.e. the principle foreseen by the Law of Administration Procedure.
The Committee estimates that the Administration for Housing Issues, during the whole period, was not up to its task. Minimal results were achieved due to lack of graduated lawyers, i.e. leaders of the procedures without professional education and work experience, non-existence of valid legal bulletins for housing field and due to the fact that the Federation Ministry of Justice and Federation Administration Inspectors were never included to see the final results according to the law.
The Administration for Housing Issues should be aware that it is not an organ which is to protect lawfulness but that it should work on restitution of repossession pursuant to the law since the competent courts- judicial organs are to protect lawfulness and make estimates on protection of lawfulness of acts.
The Committee especially emphasises irresponsibility of the Administration when status of temporary tenant is in question who was a legal holder of tenant’s right on another apartment, and this irresponsibility results in non-existence of binding up the cases with execution at the same moment, this finally creating unnecessary problems.
Decisions on repossession of apartments are being kept for several months for signature only with the Directorate of Administration for Housing Issues, this even more ruining the authority of this organ, even respecting the fact that there is a huge number of cases and that legal terms can not be met (this being also unacceptable) there is no excuse either before the parties or before other institutions.
Administration for Housing Issues must accept tenant’s right as property right, as one of the property rights – ownership and to resolve restitution of repossession as the previous issue, and to give an owner of an apartment the right he is entitled to before the law.
It is under question mark, to which degree of expertness and knowledge the decisions of the High Representative, particularly the ones brought on 28.10.1999 containing precise legal terms and extraordinary broad legal engagement, are being applied by the Administration for Housing Issues.
Another estimate of the Helsinki Committee is that right to accommodation to temporary tenants is given on the basis of subjective opinion not according to the law.

c) Special observations
This Committee has a feeling that elderly parties, living alone, are under “special treatment” – against the law. Despite the engagement of the Committee, no party older than 70 years, repossessed his apartment, except Madam Marija Novakovic who entered her apartment when the Administration for Housing Issues – department in Ilidza executed its decision.
Many parties missed the terms for purchase of their apartments thus facing new conditions and legal changes and were brought to much more difficult situation due to slowness in work of the organs and their obstructions and the parties had again to procure the documentation and to suffer additional expenses.
Period of time of more than one year that was valid before for the repossession of an apartment has been extended for the same period for some parties and they are at the beginning of the procedure now.
Initiating complaints against the organs of the Administration, because the holders of tenant’s rights could not repossess their apartments within the legal term, the courts shall accept for certain but with uncertain legal result and final resolution.
Claims for compensation of damages for furniture, equipment in apartment and for destruction of apartment, and for expenses for accommodation are being lodged in greater and greater number of cases by the holders of tenants’ rights against temporary tenants. They present a picture of anti-civilisational behaviour of temporary tenants and of the owners of apartments at the same time.
The Committee is of opinion that it is necessary to introduce supervision of the work of the Administration for Housing issues, in a form of a Commission composed of experts from the non-governmental organisations and international institutions.
It would be also important that all institutions in charge of protection of human rights as well as non-governmental organisations, ask for a list from the Administration for Housing issues and municipal bodies working on repossession of apartments in private ownership, containing all those cases which have not been taken under consideration as yet.
Thus, all decisions which have been made would be signed immediately and executive procedure could be continued.

d) Military apartments
The Committee has been receiving in a greater number complaints on violation of human rights in respect of disrespect of norms set in the Law on Changes and Amendments to the Law on Sale of Apartments with Tenants’ Rights (Official Gazette of BH F, No. 27/99) and Instructions for Application of the Law on Cessation of Application of the Law on Abandoned Apartments and its changed and amended form as published in the Official Gazette of BH F, No. 11/98, 38/98, 12/99 and 27/99, items 23, 24 and 38 through 41 of the Instructions.
These are civil persons, in the capacity of legal holders of tenants’ rights, co-holders or members of households while the owner is the military fund, as a legal successor of the former Yugoslav Army.
Applicants are being informed everyday by the departments of the Administration for Housing Issues that their cases have been undertaken by the competent military organs for housing issues, but that the listing of cases has not yet been done or hearings have been postponed because of waiting for “work instructions from the Ministry of Defence of the BH Federation”.
First group of applicants who bought their apartments before the war from then military housing fund, still dwelling in them, have not realised their new rights according to the articles 39-a, 39-b, 39-c, 39-d and 39-e of the Law on Sale of Apartments with Tenants’ Rights.
Second group of applications refer to return of apartments with tenants’ rights which have not as yet been taken under consideration, this clearly showing to the violation of human rights and non-existence of co-operation of organs dealing exclusively with the issue of apartments that are at the disposal of the Federation Ministry of Defence, with the international and national organs.
The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in BH must state that, when the apartments possessed by the military funds are in question, there is a specific obstruction which lasts from the beginning of the war almost toward all legal holders of tenants’ rights over these apartments.
The procedures have been prolonged for years, this being continued even following the Instructions of the High Representative in BH, regardless of the fact that a great number of “civil persons outside of YNA” from before the war were legally living in the apartments and did not took part in the war in any way.
By analysing category of all, without one exception, new legal tenants’ holders, with war or post-war permanent decisions, we would get a real picture on the present state of use of the whole military housing fund as well as response to the question whether there was, in respect of military apartments, any obstruction in implementation of the Peace Agreement for Bosnia and Herzegovina and by which groups and individuals.
With existence of equality of citizens before the law, with rule of law and its autonomy, a democratic country such as Bosnia and Herzegovina must not and can not make difference between holders of tenant’s rights of the military housing fund nor bring them into more or less favourable position as compared to other holders of tenant’s rights of apartments from other funds (socially-owned – state, private, communal).

e) Future activities
The Committee shall, in future as well, as a power of attorney, represent all the parties that address to it and render them all assistance and support in protection of their human rights.
Primarily, with the aim to protect law, pursuant to the Annex 7 of the Peace Agreement for Bosnia and Herzegovina, principles of Sarajevo Declaration, norms of the Constitution of Annex 4 and all other legal and sub-legal acts.
Such commitment shall certainly contribute to faster movement in realisation of human rights, establishment of rule of law and to greater respect of non-governmental organisations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Sarajevo, 31 December 1999
No. 36-12/99