08/08/2006 OHR Sarajevo

High Representative Signs New Registry Agreement

image_pdfimage_print

 

High Representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling today signed an updated Registry Agreement with the Presidency of Bosnia andHerzegovina.

The new Registry Agreement replaces that of 1 December 2004 and is an interim step to local ownership of this institution that has established the departments with the Court and the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina to process war crimes and organised crime cases to the highest international standards.

In the new agreement, which still needs to be signed by the Chair of the BiH Presidency Sulejman Tihic, responsibilities originally given to the international registrar are transferred to a Transition Council comprised primarily of representatives of the BiH institutions to whom responsibilities will ultimately be transferred.

Among other changes, the power to appoint international judges and prosecutors is transferred from the High Representative to the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council.

The new agreement also includes a transition plan and a concrete integration strategy.