Delegation From Bosnia And Herzegovina
Represented By California State University, Chico
By Laura Blumenstein and Ben Terhune

Position Paper For United Nations Congress On The Prevention Of Crime And The Treatment Of Offenders

The topics before the United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, hereafter known as the Crime Congress, are: Juvenile Justice Reform in Criminal Proceedings or The Restoration of Standards and Norms; Cybercrime; and The Environment: Preventing its Victimization through Adherence to Protective Measures. All topics on the agenda are of great importance to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our delegation holds these topics as high priority and will continue to work with the international community in order to ensure our goals of peace and prosperity.

I. Juvenile Justice Reform in Criminal Proceedings

For Bosnia and Herzegovina, the last decade of the twentieth century was marked by war and devastation that resulted in widespread suffering, ranging from poverty and displacement to the destruction of the family unit. It is clear that children are the most vulnerable group in any society and suffer the most from such tragedies. As our nation is afflicted by these residual issues, as well the tumultuous transition from communism to a free market democracy, it is clear that the process of reforming the justice system for juveniles must be handled appropriately. Article 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) advocates the rights of all children alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed upon the penal law. Bosnia and Herzegovina, having ratified the CRC promotes the interest of the child in criminal proceedings by not allowing children under the age of fourteen to be incarcerated. Furthermore, children under the age of eighteen will not be tried as adults under any circumstances, and in accordance with both Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 37(a) of the CRC, will not face capital punishment. The International Standards for the Administration of Juvenile Justice and Examples of Good Practice alludes to the fact that the concept of juvenile justice not only includes the treatment of children when they come into conflict with the law, but also the root of the causes of why children come into conflict with law in the first place. A/RES/S-27/2, entitled A World Fit for Children, addresses the disadvantages of children and how these factors can lead to criminal actions. We believe that problems afflicting children in many regions of the world such as trafficking, smuggling, physical and sexual exploitation, and abduction, as well as economic exploitation, are all precursors to the existence of criminality in the underage population. Bosnia and Herzegovina recognizes that of the 520,000 internally displaced refugees resultant from the war in Bosnia, according to the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF), one-third are under fifteen years of age. We view this reality to be a major contributor to high-risk behavior among young people, making this an increasingly important issue for us. As can be found in several regions of the world, illegal activity is sometimes the only option for survival. In light of this, we support A/RES/40/33, The Beijing Rules, which states that governments shall develop conditions which will ensure for the juvenile a meaningful life in the community by fostering a process of personal development and education that is free from crime and delinquency. In order to help counter criminal behavior among juveniles, the governments of Bosnia and Herzegovina guarantee free access to primary education for all children, despite gender or ethnicity. As prevention is often the best technique for solving any problem, we support The Riyadh Guidelines, A/RES/45/112, which addresses the issue of the prevention of juvenile criminal behavior. Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently engaged in a number of cooperative projects with international organizations to help stifle the domestic trends of juvenile delinquency. The Centre for International Crime Prevention, in cooperation with UNICEF and the European Union, is currently working with and in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the reformation of the penal code and restorative justice. We strongly support resolution E/CN.15/2000/5, which recognizes that the United Nations plays an important role in coordinating and monitoring the implementation of international juvenile justice standards and ensuring implementation at a national level. The United Nations Juvenile Justice Guide to International Standards and Best Practice calls for relevant United Nations’ entities and non-governmental organizations to observe states’ juvenile justice systems and provide advisory services and technical assistance. In accordance with this guide and others, Bosnia-Herzegovina will continue to work towards providing a fair and just world for juveniles.

II. Cybercrime

Bosnia and Herzegovina is firmly opposed to all forms of cybercrime and criminal misuse of internet technologies. New information and communication technologies have a revolutionary and fundamental impact on the economies and societies of the international community. Although they have brought numerous positive benefits, computer systems offer new and highly sophisticated opportunities for law-breaking, and they create the potential to commit traditional types of crimes in nontraditional ways. Bosnia and Herzegovina believes that the first step in deterring the negative behavior that is cybercrime is for the international community to create a workable and concrete definition of cybercrime. More than in any other transnational crime, the speed, mobility, flexibility, significance, and value of electronic transactions profoundly challenge the existing rules of international crime law. Bosnia and Herzegovina supports the concept of a global partnership aimed at launching worldwide criminalization of cybercrime. Concerning international legislation, Bosnia and Herzegovina is in the process of ratifying the Convention on Cybercrime, and fully supports A/RES/56/121, entitled Combating the Criminal Misuse of Information Technologies. Of particular concern for Bosnia and Herzegovina is the use of the internet as a means of communicating in the process of trafficking human beings, especially for the industries of prostitution and child pornography. Women and children are regularly forced into these industries and subjected to conditions in which countless human rights are violated. The women in these brothels are frequently bought and sold to other operations or individuals, many of which are foreign, leading to the assumption that the internet has played a role in these actions in some way, shape, or form. In order to help put an end to this atrocious practice, Bosnia and Herzegovina will continue to support and promote the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, through traditional avenues as well as those aimed at targeting cybercrime. We call upon those who have not already done so to ratify the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child entitled the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography. Recalling the Stockholm Agenda for Action, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Towards Women, and Article 35 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is the responsibility of all nations who adhere to these agreements to act unilaterally, bilaterally, and multilaterally to prevent this criminal treatment of woman and children from occurring. We believe that this also means putting an end to the use of the internet as a platform for such behavior. Bosnia and Herzegovina will continue to oppose and work at preventing all criminal misuse of the internet and anticipate working with the international community on this issue.

III. The Environment: Preventing its Victimization through Adherence to Protective Measures

Protecting the environment from victimization and degradation, both nationally and internationally, is a major priority for Bosnia and Herzegovina. We recognize that allowing the ill-treatment of the environment does, in fact, cause major repercussions in nearly all aspects of human society. We have recently suffered through a decade of civil war and regional conflict, and are now just beginning to recover from the collective environmental devastation that ensued. In order to promote environmental stability and recovery on a national level, the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina created the Environmental Steering Committee in 1998 with help from the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC). The Committee consists of members from the Office of the High Representative (OHC), the United State’s Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank, and the European Commission. The committee is responsible for harmonization of environmental legislation and regulation, action programs, international treaties concerning the environment and their implementation, involvement in international processes such as Environment for Europe, cooperation with international organizations such as United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the European Environmental Agency (EEA), physical planning concerning the environment, and coordination of all environmental activities incident to the admission of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a member of the European Union (EU). We believe that war is a leading deteriorating factor for much of the world’s environment. War in our country has damaged irrigation systems and farm machinery, reduced livestock, contaminated the soil, and reduced arable land. A large proportion of this damage, particularly in the area of agriculture, has been caused by remaining landmines, which are a by-product of war. Bosnia and Herzegovina firmly supports A/RES/56/4 and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-personal Mines and on their Destruction, which clearly specify how, not just landmines, but war, in general, damage the environment. Bosnia and Herzegovina also stands behind A/RES/56/219, which condemns the use of landmines and promotes greater international cooperation in their clearance. Unsustainable agricultural practices have had an extremely negative impact on the environment, such as: very high losses of water through poor irrigation systems, pollution of soil and groundwater due to the use of chemicals and pesticides, and air pollution from crops and livestock. Agriculture is the largest consumer of water, and almost half of the water produced worldwide has been lost due to damaged and inefficient irrigation systems. For these reasons, Bosnia and Herzegovina has chosen to continue to adhere to the Water Law, which was adopted before the war. Bosnia and Herzegovina encourages the international community to promote and regulate sustainable agricultural practices in an effort to conserve the use of water. In order to deter pollution and promote such positive actions as recycling, the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina has both developed plans and passed several vital pieces of legislation. More recently, we have developed a Law on Physical Planning and a Physical Plan of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which together helped introduce the Polluters Pay Principle. Under this principle, the polluter must pay charges, fees, taxes or other retributions for pollution or use of nature or natural resources in any damaging manner. Furthermore, in order to encourage environmentally conscientious behavior, the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina has established a deposit-refund system for bottles made of glass. There is currently a seventy percent return rate reached by the Bosnian people. Other environmental legislation has been prepared through a European Community project named “Preparation of Environmental Law and Policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” Our government is in the process of passing the following legislation: Law on the Protection of the Environment, Law on the Protection of the Waters, Law on the Protection of Nature, Law on Waste Management, and Law on Protection of the Air. After our secession from what was formerly Yugoslavia, we have continued to uphold the following environmental conventions: Convention on Fishing and Conservation of the Living Resources on the High Sea, Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution, Protocol concerning Co-operation in combating Pollution of the Mediterranean Sea by Oil and other Harmful Substances, Protocol for the Prevention of Pollution of the Mediterranean Sea by Dumping from Ships and Aircrafts, Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, Protocol for the Protection of the Mediterranean Specially Protected Areas, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Protocol to the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution On Long-Term Financing of Co-operative Programme for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Transmissions of Air Pollutants in Europe, Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter. Due to the violent conflict taking place in our nation at the time, Bosnia and Herzegovina was not able to attend the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, held in Rio. Bosnia and Herzegovina did however enthusiastically attend the World Summit which took place in Johannesburg, and we are currently in the process of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. We remain resolutely in support of future domestic and international environmental legislation.