Lawyers from Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zenica, Bihać, Mostar, Gračanica and Ljubuški are participating in two days cascade training on the application of the Law on defamation in the judicial system of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which includes understanding and application of the Council of Europe standards established by the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as in the practice of the European Court of Human Rights.

Training on defamation and defamation laws began with a case study. Participants were introduced to the facts of a defamation case which they argumented about and upon which they opened a series of questions and finally acknowledged the elements of defamation. This was an introduction to the analysis of the relevant cases of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as domestic courts, which were the topic of presentations at the seminar. Restricting the freedom of expression by the court through administrative, criminal and civil proceedings, but also in value courts, facts in defamation proceedings and preserving the dignity of the court and freedom of expression were also topics covered by the training.

The aim of the seminar is to further strengthen the capacity of the local judiciary with regards to standards of the freedom of expression and defamation, as set out in the European Convention on Human Rights, and the current practice of the European Court of Human Rights. The educators in the seminar are Sevima Sali Terzić, senior advisor at the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, judge Amir Kapetanović from the Court of BiH and Irena Obradović Puzić, lawyer from Doboj. The seminar was organised in co-operation with the Bar Association of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This training has been organised within the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”, and its action on “Freedom of expression and freedom of the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina (JUFREX)”.