President Stevandic: We will ask for the UN Special rapporteur to come to BiH

The President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska, Dr Nenad Stevandic, announced that he would ask the BiH in charge authorities to call the UN Special Rapporteur to come to Sarajevo to make a report on the state of the human rights of the persons affected by the US sanctions, which represent the roughest human rights violations.

Stevandic highlighted that he would send a letter to all ministries and the chairman of the Council of Ministers to warn them about missing the function and not reacting to the UN Committee for Human Rights.

They were talking about the International Conference on Human Rights, organized in Geneva, on 21 and 22 November, by the UN Special Rapporteur, on the negative influence of the unilateral compulsory measures concerning human rights. Stevandic highlighted that many countries submitted written and verbal reports except BiH.

“BiH did not react although the sanctions here were imposed upon persons who fulfilled their constitutional rights and obligations. Dragan Dakic, the advisor in the Cabinet of the President of the National Assembly and the professor of International Law had the opportunity to talk at the conference”, said president Stevandic at the press conference in Banja Luka.

He stressed that Dakic had pointed out the shortcomings of the principles and mechanisms by which Republika Srpska and similar entities could protect their citizens.

"The need for this arose due to the inaction of the BiH authorities to initiate procedures for the protection of persons from the Republic of Srpska and the Federation of BiH," Stevandic added.

He pointed out that the general conclusions of the conference were that any sanctions not imposed by the UN Security Council were a violation of international law.

"We are particularly pleased that the special rapporteur has determined that the sanctions against us are a violation of human rights, although this has gone unnoticed in BiH," said Stevandic.

Dakic stressed that one of the problems highlighted at the conference was the behavior of the banking sector, which is ready to implement sanctions much more strictly than was foreseen.

"There is no situation in which a person in the internal payment system is deprived of their bank account and all other rights arising from it," Dakic stated.

He added that the authorities at the BiH level initiated available procedures from diplomatic, judicial, and even special mechanisms to resolve these issues.