TheHigh Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH and the courts in BiH areintensely working on improving independence and accountability and inparticular the quality of work as demonstrated by the Report on Independence,Accountability and Quality of the Judiciary of Bosnia and Herzegovina writtenaccording to the criteria of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary(ENCJ).

Accordingto the ENCJ criteria, the process to evaluate independence, accountability andquality of the judiciary includes conducting a questionnaire on the stated principlesand survey on judicial independence.

Usingthe mentioned measurement instruments, the HJPC BiH participated in evaluatingindependence, accountability and quality of the judiciary of BiH, the resultsof which became a part of the Report on Independence, Accountability andQuality of the Judiciary of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2018-2020 that was discussedin the Council session on 25 March 2021.

Themain findings of the Report indicate that some progress has been made in the independencesegment, but that an advanced progress, especially in the area of publishingfinancial statements and appointments and promotions of judges, issignificantly conditioned by the actions and work of the legislature. Aspointed out further, other branches of state power (political system) do notfunction any better than the judiciary in terms of integrity and good governance,which affects the judiciary and hinders progress.

TheReport findings also indicate the existence of a negative perception ofjudicial independence, as well as the lack of citizens’ trust in the work ofjudicial institutions. Omissions have been identified in media relations,transparency and publishing data on the assets of judicial office holders.

Thefact that the HJPC BiH is among a few judicial councils in Europe that evaluatethe quality of court decisions is assessed as positive, while the room foradditional quality improvement is recognised in the simplification ofprocedure, electronic filing of complaints and electronic procedure.

Alsointeresting are the results that indicate the existence of a negativeperception of the judges themselves on the compliance with the ethicalstandards by judges and adequacy of procedures by the competent authorities incases of misconduct and corruption by the judicial office holders.

Onthe basis of the obtained data, as the regulatory body, the HJPC BiH assessesthe system and compares it with other judicial systems of the EU, aiming toadopt potential measures for improvement of the judicial system.

AlthoughBiH is neither an ENCJ member nor has the observer status, the participation inthe evaluation of indicators of independence, accountability and quality of thejudiciary enables BiH to apply the ENCJ criteria in the judicial system of BiH,identify the areas which require improvement and measure the progress of the judiciaryin establishing European standards.

 The HJPC BiH isconducting the analysis of independence, accountability and quality of thejudiciary per criteria of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary(ENCJ) in collaboration with the Norwegian Courts Administration and theCouncil for the Judiciary of the Netherlands with funding from the Governmentof Norway.