Achieving the Rights of Local Self-Governance
On April 14, 2009, the Constitutional Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) declared that the right of municipalities in FBiH to local self-government had been violated by several articles of the Law on Forests in the FBiH. In the verdict, the court asked the Federal Parliament to work with the Municipal Association to change the provisions violating the rights of the municipalities within 6 months.
The ruling of the Constitutional Court was a big victory for municipalities and the Municipal Association, which formally appealed for protecting the right to local self-government, marking the first time that the Association appeared before the court representing municipal interests. With the Association’s help, a request by one municipality in FBiH to have its rights protected became a matter around which all the municipalities rallied together. The Association was recognized as a strong partner to legislative bodies and attracted the attention of higher levels of government to issues that were of high importance for municipalities all across FBiH.
The Core of the Problem
The Law on Forests was previously recognised as unfavourable to municipalities. However, it was put under the spotlight in December of 2008 when the municipality of Konjic, a GAP partner municipality, submitted an appeal before the FBiH Constitutional Court for protection of its rights in the area of forest exploitation breached by the Canton. In its appeal, the municipality also included a claim that the Law on Forests does not respect the municipality’s competencies and should be amended accordingly. In order to provide additional information on the issue, the court invited the Association to appear before the Court as a “friend of the Court.”
GAP encouraged the Association not only to appear before the Court as a friend of the Court, but also to broaden the appeal in order to include the protection of rights of all municipalities in FBiH in relation to the Law on Forests.
The Association prepared an appeal by working through its Committee on Constitutional and Legal Matters and conducted research on how this issue affects other municipalities. The research showed that this problem was particularly prominent in municipalities with large forested areas that represent their most important and valuable natural resource. This included municipalities of Glamoc, Bosansko Grahovo, Bosanski Petrovac, Olovo, Kakanj, Vitez, Bosanska Krupa, Buzim, Vares, Novi Travnik, Hadzici and others, many of which are GAP partner municipalities.
As the most important natural resource, forests and forest land could be an important and reliable source of revenue. However, municipalities were denied the right to generate revenue from the use of this natural resource because of the detrimental provisions of the Law on Forests. Municipalities could not influence the policy on the management of forests and forest land, calculation of fees for their use, and the allocation of revenue generated because all those competencies were allocated to cantons. Thus, forests and forest land were managed and regulated by cantons, and municipalities were completely excluded from that process.
The lack of any consultation with the municipalities while enacting the law, as well as the inability of the municipalities to exert any influence over this policy constituted a direct breach of the right to local self-government granted to municipalities by international conventions and domestic legislation.
Recognized Joint Interests of Municipalities
Instead of considering the right of each municipality individually, the Association Committee decided that it should support Konjic municipality and also appeal for the protection of the right of local self governance for all municipalities in FBiH.
Through its support to the Committee and based on evidence submitted by municipalities, GAP helped draft the appeal which was submitted to the Constitutional Court by the Association.
The Court decided to merge the two appeals from Konjic and the Association into one proceeding and schedule a hearing for April 14th.
Upon holding a hearing in which the Association was represented, the Court decided that the disputed provisions of the Law on Forests had caused a serious violation of the right to local self-government, granted by the European Charter on Local Self-Government, the Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Law on Principles of Local Self-Government. Finally, it requested that the Parliament involve the Municipal Association in the drafting of a new Law on Forests.
