Successful implementation of the Action „Strengthening human rights treatment of detained persons based on European standards and best practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina” was acknowledged at the final meeting of the Steering Committee held on 12 October 2022 in Banja Luka. This Action is a part of the joint European Union and the Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” and implemented by the Council of Europe for the past 40 months. The persons deprived of liberty in prisons, law enforcement agencies and forensic staff, benefited from its effective implementation by improving their human rights skills.

The Steering Committee concluded that the overall purpose of the Action was fully achieved. This encompasses, among others: detecting challenges in dealing with persons deprived of liberty across the custodial environment, offering timely and well-balanced remedies aligned with the Council of Europe and other relevant international standards and, finally - providing technical support to local authorities in meeting international human rights obligations, by improving custodial operational procedures.

Senior justice policy makers and representatives of the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman of BiH endorsed the key results produced by the team work of local professionals and international short term consultants. The main results are inter alia:

• the harmonisation of operational procedures with respect to human rights standards across custodial environment,

• the changes that this harmonisation brought to the domestic regulations with particular emphasis on the importance of the custodial staff training structures, and

• the capacity building for the custodial staff in closed environment in BiH.

Local prison authorities were particularly grateful to both project partners, European Union and the Council of Europe, for the flexibility of this Action and the prompt and coordinated response to their immediate needs. This is specifically reflected in the procurement of hardware for pilot prisons in Bosnia and Herzegovina and development of software, which will lead up to the more efficient processing of electronic data.