OHR Press Releases

The failure by the Council of Ministers to forward the draft Higher Education Framework Law to the BiH Parliamentary Assembly is alarming and jeopardizes BiH’s chance to improve its education system. Last year, BiH authorities signed the Bologna Declaration and ratified the Lisbon Recognition Convention. By doing so, they committed themselves [...]

Following the demonstration by employees of Dnevni Avaz outside the Office of the High Representative today, the OHR made the following statement: The employees of Dnevni Avaz are free to demonstrate peacefully wherever they want in accordance with the law. This is a fundamental democratic right and European standard. Unfortunately, the demonstra [...]

The High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, today welcomed the signature of a joint declaration by all the parties represented in the BiH House of Representatives pledging their readiness to find consensus in order to achieve membership of the European Union and NATO's Partnership for Peace.

Senior representatives of international organizations working in Bosnia and Herzegovina met the principal authorities of the State of BiH and the Federation of BiH, at the OHR in Sarajevo today. The meeting was chaired by Principal Deputy High Representative Donald Hays and Senior Deputy High Representative Werner Wnendt. A complementary meeting wi [...]

The High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, today congratulated the BiH Prosecutor's Office on bringing to a successful conclusion the Milakovic-Sherwood human-trafficking case. “The BiH authorities, together with the international community, have spent a lot of time building the institutions of the Rule of Law. This conviction shows that that work is [...]

The PLIP agencies (OHR, UNHCR and OSCE) announced today in Sarajevo that the implementation of the property laws in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is nearing its completion. The Office of the High Representative, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the OSCE Mission to BiH, said that the property law implementation ratio in the cou [...]

The High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, has today extended the mandate of the Defence Reform Commission and its chairman, James Locher. This extension will help BiH make real and timely progress in implementing defence reforms that will allow it to fulfil the membership conditions for NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) and so make it a credible can [...]

The continued funding of Mostar’s City Administration by the Federation Elektroprivredas will depend on timely implementation of the Statute uniting the City, the High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, said on Tuesday. Mostar’s City Administration is substantially financed through monthly payments from the Elektroprivredas that have hydro-power pla [...]

Responding to the most recent polling of public opinion carried out by Partner Agency among the citizens of Mostar, the High Representative said: "The polling carried out by Partner Agency and published today shows that the citizens of Mostar overwhelmingly want a united city that works for them, with guaranteed power sharing to prevent any one [...]

The High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, has appointed John McNair Deputy Chief Prosecutor and Head of the Special Department for Organised Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption within the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH.