The latest statistics on property law implementation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) presented today in Sarajevo show that stable progress is being made towards substantial completion.

The Property Law Implementation (PLI) agencies, which include theOffice of the High Representative, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, noted that more then 99 percent of the first instance decisions were issued and there are only 1,051 cases out of 216,802 submitted property claims yet to be resolved in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The local housing authorities in Berkovici, Bileca, Bosanski/Srpski Brod, Capljina, Gacko, Kalesija, Kladanj, Kostajnica, Ljubinje, Neum, Prozor/Rama, Srebrenik, and Stolac were verified as having substantially completed implementation of the property law. In addition, Hadzici, Ilidza, Ilijas and Vogosca have substantially completed processing private property claims bringing the total number of verified municipalities in the country to 77.

Monitoring of the transfer of responsibility for property law implementation in Bosanski Novi/Novi Grad to the Office of the Ministry for Displaced Persons and Refugees in Prijedor identified several unresolved claims. The PLI agencies have suspended Bosanski Novi/Novi Grad’s status as having completed PLI pending the resolution of all such claims by the Ministry’s Office in Prijedor.

The Agencies call upon the local authorities that have not established a cut-off date for the full implementation of the property law to do so as soon as possible.