The European Court of Human Rights was established by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (hereinafter referred to as the Convention) and operates within the framework of the oldest European organisation, the Council of Europe. The seat of the European Court of Human Rights is in Strasbourg, France, and the official languages ​​of the Court are English and French. The rules of procedure before the Court are regulated by the Rules of Procedure of the Court and the Convention.

Bosnia and Herzegovina ratified the Convention on 12 July 2002 and thereby accepted the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights to decide on applications/requests from any natural person, non-governmental organisation, group of individuals or other Member State claiming to be victims of a violation of the rights set out in the Convention committed by Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It is important to point out that the obligation to respect the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Convention and its protocols in Bosnia and Herzegovina arose already with the entry into force of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 14 December 1995, which in Article II declares the Convention directly applicable in Bosnia and Herzegovina, giving it priority over all other laws.

However, it was only with the ratification of the Convention as an international treaty that respect for the rights and freedoms set out in the Convention and the additional protocols in Bosnia and Herzegovina became subject to control by the European Court of Human Rights.

By ratifying the Convention, Bosnia and Herzegovina also undertook to submit to the final judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in any dispute to which it is a party. A judgment in which the Court finds that a right has been violated constitutes an instruction to the state concerned to ensure that certain corrective measures are taken to remedy the violation of the right, compensate the injured party and prevent the repetition of the same or similar violations in the future. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe is responsible for supervising the execution of the Court's judgments at the national level.

All judgments and final decisions of the Court issued in proceedings against Bosnia and Herzegovina are translated into one of the official languages ​​of Bosnia and Herzegovina and published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina and on this website. Their original texts can be found on the website of the European Court of Human Rights: www.echr.coe.int . This page contains judgments and decisions relating to other countries, as well as other information about the work of the European Court of Human Rights.