By Mladen Dragojlovic for Southeast European Times in Banja Luka -- 28/01/13
The Republika Srpska assembly would have to pass an amendment to remove the death penalty from the constitution. [Mladen Dragojlovic/SETimes]
The EU has urged Republika Srpska to eliminate Article 11 of its constitution, which prescribes the death penalty for the most heinous crimes, but politics on the national level in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have prevented action.
"Republika Srpska is part of BiH's legal system, which aspires to be a part of the EU. Even if BiH fulfills all obligations and Republika Srpska does not change Article 11, EU membership will remain a dream," Momir Malic, president of BiH's Council of Nations, told SETimes.
The last person to be executed in the region was put to death in 1992 in Serbia. Since, several people have been sentenced to death, but the sentences have since been commuted to long-term imprisonment.
By 2002, all regional countries officially abolished the death penalty but Republika Srpska has not.
Malic said the EU is again urging changes to the BiH entity's constitution, but the latest initiative failed when Bosniak MPs did not agree to verify all 29 amendments in a package that Republika Srpska's national assembly adopted four years ago.
All assembly decisions are submitted in package form and must be verified by the BiH Council of Nations MPs in their entirety.
The Bosniak MPs said they do not advocate the death penalty, but have issues with the other proposed changes to the entity's constitution.
The Republika Srpska assembly would now have to start from scratch to address the issue.
Legal experts said the issue is needlessly taxing the country's EU integration. BiH criminal law does not prescribe capital punishment, so having it on paper in the entity's constitution constitutes a legal issue since capital punishment cannot legally be used.
"While the death penalty represents a violation of the right to life as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is up to the Republika Srspka authorities to decide whether they will abolish it," Lejla Hadzimesic, analyst for Amnesty International for BiH, Croatia and Slovenia, told SETimes.
Meanwhile, polls show that half of the citizens in the region strongly support reinstituting the death penalty in the belief that it is an effective measure against crime.
"The death penalty does not prevent crime and it is one of the biggest reasons for being cut out of the laws. Because capital punishment can be used to eliminate political opponents, there is always a danger that somebody innocent will be executed," Ivan Jankovic, member of Serbia Against Death Penalty, which conducts an annual poll on death penalty, told SETimes.
Jankovic said support for capital punishment in the region oscillates; it increases when the media reports extremely brutal crimes but drops if innocents are convicted to death.
Nevertheless, BiH is a member of the Council of Europe, and as such has accepted the European Convention on Human Rights, which requires all member states not to implement capital punishment.
"Republika Srspka will be the biggest obstacle on BiH's way to the EU. The parties which participate in the Council of Nations must find a way to resolve the issue before we achieve a higher phase of negotiations with the EU," Malic told SETimes.
Source: SETimes.com
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