The new methodology for conducting police interviews and operational procedures for policing public gatherings were the key issues discussed at the meeting of 55 most senior police officials at their 3rd annual co-ordination meeting held on 16-17 May 2023 in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).

The two draft resource manuals specific to each of these topics, prepared in collaboration local police experts under the “Further strengthening the treatment of detained and sentenced persons in line with European standards in Bosnia and Herzegovina“ equip police officers with knowledge of the European Convention on Human Rights and skills to apply its provisions in daily practice.

Police managers from 17 police agencies in Bosnia-Herzegovina affirmed their commitment to ensure that all officers within their charge better uphold individuals' rights to freedom of expression, peaceful gathering and association.

In a series of training sessions to follow  these publications, the police officers will also improve their skills in conducting various types of police interviews. The new interviewing methodology was developed in direct response to the recommendations of the European Committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment reports addressed to BiH authorities to improve human rights safeguards during questionings, hearings and informative talks.

„We welcome this timely assistance provided to the wider professional community by our European partners. The procedures laid out in these resource manuals will be presented by the human rights trainers already accredited to deliver these modules in our agencies. We wish for these improvements to bring us closer to the European best practices and to better harmonise our approach to the upholding of human rights protection mechanisms.

Such high level meetings enable us to formulate the joint message of zero tolerance against ill-treatment and to make it widely available to the police officers in our competence“, said one of the participants.

The senior police officials also recognised that implementation of human rights standards requires decent conditions and functional detention premises. They reiterated invitation to donors to reinforce their support to infrastructural initiatives to provide detention conditions also aligned with European standards.   

The action “Further strengthening the treatment of detained and sentenced persons in line with European standards in Bosnia and Herzegovina“, within which the co-ordination meeting was organised, is implemented by the Division for Co-operation in police and deprivation of liberty of the Council of Europe, and is part of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye”.