This submission highlights Human Rights Watch’s concerns in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). These include obstacles to fair and effective war crimes trials before cantonal and district courts; inadequate safeguards in national security expulsions; the treatment of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs); threats and violence against sexual minorities; and ethnic and religious discrimination in the political system

The US vice president should not ignore the plight of foreigners who came to fight alongside the Bosnian Army in the 1991-1993 civil war, who are facing detention and deportation. As U.S. Vice President, Joe Biden, and EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, visit Sarajevo this week, they will usher in a new chapter in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s relations with the West.

Justice for the worst crimes under international law—namely genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes—is vital for victims of the crimes wherever they occur and for building peaceful societies based on the rule of law.

Justice for the worst crimes under international law—namely genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes—should be a priority for the administration under President Barack Obama.

The European Union should send a strong message to Serbia that full cooperation with the Yugoslav tribunal, including the arrest and surrender of Bosnian war fugitive Ratko Mladic, remains necessary for EU membership.

Amnesty International, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Human Rights Watch called upon authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina today not to deport Imad Al Husein (also known as Abu Hamza al-Suri, his nom de guerre) to Syria.

The authorities in Bosnia’s Republika Srpska should publicly condemn threats made against Branko Todorovic, a prominent human rights defender, and his family, Human Rights Watch said today.

Many people in Bosnia and beyond thought they would never see Radovan Karadzic standing before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). It seemed almost beyond the dreams of the rape victims that I interviewed in Bosnia in 1993, or those held in concentration camps. But even then, in the midst of the conflict and in very difficult circumstances, local civilians had painstakingly gathered detailed testimonies from survivors in the hope that one day, there would be justice for these crimes.