Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Announcing the Completion Strategy of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in 2003 it was obvious that the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina should have a jurisdiction over the prosecution of war crimes and they should take over the war crime cases from the Hague Tribunal.

Therefore, in 2004 a set of legal acts was drafted and it was adopted by the BiH Parliament in December 2004.

[2] The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina stipulates jurisdiction of the Prosecutor’s Offices at the entity levels whereas the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina was additionally established as an institution with special jurisdiction for proceedings before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina against crimes stipulated by the Law on the Court of BiH, Law on Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, Criminal Code of BiH, Criminal Procedure Code of BiH, Law on Transfer of Cases from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH.

The jurisdiction and scope of activities of the Prosecutor's Office are stipulated by the Law on Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina whereby the Prosecutor's Office is: - an organ competent for conducting investigations of criminal offences under the jurisdiction of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina pursuant to the Criminal procedure Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina and other applicable laws, - an organ competent for receiving requests for international legal assistance in criminal matters pursuant to the laws, multilateral and bilateral agreements and conventions including extradition or transfer of persons wanted by the courts or organs from the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and other States, or the international courts or tribunals, - an organ in charge of producing statistical reports on its activities (Progress Report) including information on the status of criminality in Bosnia and Herzegovina and it points to tendencies in its prevalence.

United Nations officials in 2008 called on the office to be more "pro-active" in going after war crimes fugitives, such as Ratko Mladić, Radovan Karadžić, Stojan Župljanin and Goran Hadžić.