BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: CONSTITUTIONAL COURT ABOLISHES DEATH SENTENCE IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

November 7, 2019:

Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) abolished death sentence in Republika Srpska (RS) entity. Considering the appeal of the Bosniak Club to the RS Council for the Constitutional Review of Article 11 paragraph 2 of the RS Constitution, the BiH Constitutional Court decided that such a norm could no longer exist in the RS Constitution.
Namely, the Constitutional Court stated that with the entry into force of Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention, the death penalty was abolished in all circumstances, and that the said Protocol constitutes a legally binding act for all levels of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including its entities.
In a statement to the RTRS, the President of the Constitutional Court of BiH, Zlatko Knezevic, said that the RS institutions have three months to delete that provision, which virtually ceased to exist today with the Constitutional Court’s decision.