07/27/2000 OHR Sarajevo

OHR welcomes Council of Ministers Decision on Single Passport for BiH

The Council of Ministers today approved the amendments to the Law on Passports. The amendments envisage a single, neutral passport for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The single passport is a requirement from the 1998 Madrid Declaration of the Peace Implementation Council and the Presidency committed itself to the creation of a single national passport, carrying only the name of Bosnia and Herzegovina on its cover in both Cyrillic and Latin scripts, in its New York Declaration before the United Nations Security Council last year. The EU Road Map as well as the Brussels meeting of the Peace Implementation Council in May set a September 2000 deadline for the creation of the new single passport.

Senior Deputy High Representative Ambassador Dr Matei Hoffmann expects – now that the legislative process is underway – for Parliament to adopt this new law without delay under urgent procedure.