Decision imposing amendments to the Law on Travel Documents introducing a single national passport

In the exercise of the powers vested in me by Article V of Annex 10 (Agreement on Civilian Implementation of the Peace Settlement) to the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to which the High Representative is the final authority in theater regarding interpretation of the said Agreement on the civilian implementation of the peace settlement; and considering in particular Article II.1.(d) of the last said Agreement, according to the terms of which the High Representative shall “facilitate, as the High Representative judges necessary, the resolution of any difficulties arising in connection with civilian implementation“;

Recalling XI.2 of the Conclusions of the Peace Implementation Council which met in Bonn on 9 and 10 December 1997, in which the Council welcomed the High Representative’s intention to use his final authority in theatre in order to facilitate the resolution of any difficulties as aforesaid “by making binding decisions, as he judges necessary” on certain issues including (under sub-paragraph (c) thereof) “other measures to ensure the Peace Agreement throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and its Entities”;

Noting that it was stated in the New York Declaration of 15 November 1999 that it was agreed “that the Presidents will propose to the BiH Parliament and strongly support the creation of a single national passport carrying only the name BiH on its cover in both the Cyrillic and Latin scripts”;

Noting further that at the 6th meeting of the BiH / European Union Consultative Task Force held at Sarajevo on 21 March 2000, among the measures which it was recommended should be taken was that “The BiH Parliamentary Assembly will adopt the necessary amendments to the law on Travel Documents for the creation of a single passport by the beginning of September. New passport will be introduced to the public by the end of year 2000”;

Noting further that it was stated in the Annex to the Declaration of the Peace Implementation Council which met in Brussels on 23 and 24 May 2000 that the Council demanded that the authorities of BiH act promptly on issues including that of beginning “issuance of common passports by BiH Ministry of Civil Affairs and Communications (MCAC) (September 2000)”;

Concerned that the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina has failed to adopt the proposed Law on Amendments to the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina;

Having considered, borne in mind and noted all the matters aforesaid, I hereby issue the following:

DECISION

On Amending the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina (No. 4/97), with amendments published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina (No. 1/99 and No. 9/99) is hereby further amended as follows:

Article 1

In Article 2 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina the words “and Citizenship of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina or the Republika Srpska” shall be deleted.

Article 2

Article 4 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be amended to read as follows:

“For the purpose of this Law, travel documents shall be understood to mean: Passport, Diplomatic Passport, Service Passport, Group Passport, Travel Certificate and seaman’s or maritime book. Other forms of identification of BiH citizens recognized by other states as a travel document through agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina may also be used for travel abroad. A citizen may possess only one travel document of the same kind.”

Article 3

Article 6 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be amended to read as follows:

“The passport shall have the following design”:

1. The cover shall be of dark blue colour;
2. The front cover shall contain, in the following order:
   1. the words “Bosnia and Herzegovina”
   2. the coat of arms of Bosnia and Herzegovina
   3. the word “Passport”.
3. The text of items (a) and (c) shall be printed in the Bosnian, Croat and English languages (Latin script) and in the Serb language (Cyrillic script).
4. The text of the first page of the passport shall be identical to the text of the front cover.

Article 4

Item 1 of Article 7 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be amended to read as follows:

1. ” The front cover shall contain in the following order”:
   1. The words: “Bosnia and Herzegovina”
   2. The coat of arms of Bosnia and Herzegovina
   3. The words: “Diplomatic Passport” or “Service Passport”.

   Item 2 of Article 7 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be amended, and a new item 3 shall be added, as follows:

2. ” The text of items a) and c) in item 1 shall be printed in the Bosnian, Croat and English languages (Latin script) and in the Serb language (Cyrillic script).”
3. “The text on the first page of the passport shall be identical to the text on the front cover.”

Article 5

In item 1 of Article 8 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the words “with a perforated serial number” shall be deleted.

In item 2 of Article 8 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the words “on the inside of the front cover” shall be deleted. The words “and English” shall be added after the word “Serb”, and sub-items “m” and “n” shall be added after sub-item “l”, to read as follows:

“m) type;
  n) the symbol of the country.”

In item 3 of Article 8 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the words “The information provided under items a – e shall be in the Latin script.” shall be added after the words “of any such children”.

In item 4 of Article 8 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the words “the inner page of the back cover” shall be replaced by “the passport” in line one.

Sub-item d) of item 4 of Article 8 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be amended to read as follows: “The bearer of this passport is a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

Item 5 shall be added after item 4 of Article 8 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to read as follows: “The text in all pages of the passport, except the information provided under items 2 and 3 of Article 8, shall be printed in the Bosnian, Croat and English languages (Latin script) and in the Serb language (Cyrillic script).”

Article 6

Article 12 a) shall be added after Article 12 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina to read as follows:

Article 7

In item 1 of paragraph 1 of Article 13 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the words “and the Brcko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina” shall be added after the word “Entity”.

Article 8

In Article 14 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the full stop after the word “Entity” shall be replaced by a comma, and the words “according to the procedure prescribed in a by-law of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina” shall be added.

Article 9

Paragraph 1 of Article 18 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be amended to read as follows: “An application for a travel document shall be filed in person. Exceptionally, an application may be filed through an authorised person. Such an application shall be regulated by a by-law to be issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

In paragraph 4 of the same Article, a comma and the words “in accordance with a by-law to be issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina” shall be added after the word “Article.”

Article 10

In paragraph 2 of Article 19 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina the word “two” shall be replaced by the word “one”; and the words “as well as evidence of payment of the price of the travel document” shall be added after the word “enclosed”.

In paragraph 3 of Article 19 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a comma and the words “together with the public documents referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article,” shall be added after the word “Article”.

In paragraph 5 of Article 19 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, “paragraph 3” shall be replaced by “paragraph 4”.

Article 11

In item 1 of paragraph 1 of Article 21 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Article 18” shall be replaced by “Article 19”.

Article 12

In paragraph 2 of Article 24 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, sub-item c) shall be added to read as follows “the competent body of the Brcko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina defined by a regulation of the Brcko District, in the case that the travel document was issued by the competent body of the Brcko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

Article 13

Article 28 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be amended to read as follows: “Ministry of Civil Affairs and Communications of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be responsible for the purchasing of personalization equipment and consumable supplies, for the maintenance and repair of personalization equipment, and for purchasing, printing and deciding on the price of travel documents. as well as for the distribution to the bodies referred to in Article 13 of this Law.”

Article 14

The validity of travel documents issued before 30 November 2000 may not be extended. Travel documents issued before 30 November 2000 shall not be valid beyond 28 November 2002. Travel documents referred to in Article 7 of the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued before 20 October 2000 shall not be valid beyond 18 April 2001.

Article 15

This Decision shall be published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the Official Gazette of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the Official Gazette of the Republika Srpska and shall enter into force on 20 October 2000 for Diplomatic and Service Passports, and on 30 November 2000 for all other Travel Documents provided for in the Law on Travel Documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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