Supervisor of Brcko, Dr Raffi Gregorian, has issued today three Supervisory Orders that harmonise the District Statute and District legislation with Amendment I to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and with the High Representative’s decisions of September 18, 2009, amending Entity and State legislation on citizenship.
One of these orders amends the Statute of Brcko District and the District Law on Courts so that they reflect Amendment I to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina that was adopted in March of this year by the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The amendments will further improve the effectiveness and functionality of the Brcko District Courts as well as ensure the protection of the interests, status and powers of Brcko District through effective court procedures after Supervision has ended.
The two other Orders amend the Statute and the Supervisory Order of August 4, 2006 that declared the Inter-Entity Boundary Line to be of no further legal significance within the District by allowing applicability in Brcko District of the entity laws on citizenship in line with the High Representative’s decisions of September 18, 2009 amending State and Entity legislation on citizenship. Those decisions established a mechanism allowing District residents to change their entity citizenship, as called for in Paragraph 1 of the August 18, 1999 Annex to Final Award.
The Supervisor is of the opinion that there is now a complete and modern legal framework on citizenship in place that serves the interests of all District residents. The implementation of this legal framework in an equal and non-discriminatory manner depends yet on Republika Srpska’s enactment of the High Representative’s decisions.
“The technical amendments that I ordered today derive directly from the Final Arbitral Award and help fulfill the conditions needed for me to notify the Arbitral Tribunal that District institutions function ‘effectively and apparently permanently’,” the Supervisor said.