Human Rights and Democracy - Official Documents

continue to communicate the achievements of the International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia of which many Serbs still have limited understanding; support
the work of the Regional Council for Reconciliation; and strengthen protection for
LGBT and ethnic minority rights.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina we promoted human rights in a range of areas,
including improving access to justice and reconciliation; helping ensure that war
crimes cases are dealt with impartially and effectively; improving prison management
in line with European best practice; supporting the identification of missing persons;
supporting the promotion of human rights; strengthening civil society organisations
and their role in policy dialogue; and strengthening independent and investigative
media. Specific projects included enhancing the effectiveness of the State
Prosecutor’s Office on Srebrenica-related war crimes and supporting the
International Commission on Missing Persons. We worked closely with EU member
states, including on implementing the EU’s Human Rights Defenders Strategy and
designing a local strategy to combat violence against women.
In 2011, we will focus on improving the ability of Bosnia and Herzegovina institutions
to implement legislation and tackle human rights violations more effectively. This
includes implementation of the 2008 National War Crimes Strategy and the State
Law on Missing Persons, as well as building the capacity of the Bosnia and
Herzegovina justice and security institutions. We will support the Bosnia and
Herzegovina authorities’ work to ensure an efficient and sustainable system for
processing war crimes cases before the State Court and State Prosecutor’s Office,
particularly focusing on crimes committed in Srebrenica area.
Despite the adoption of a human rights strategy and action plan in 2009, Kosovo
made limited overall progress during 2010. However, progress was made on the
return and re-integration of minority communities in Kosovo, a subject on which we
worked closely with the government of Kosovo. April saw the completion of a UKfunded
project, managed and implemented by the UN Development Programme,
which enabled nine Kosovo-Serb families to return to the village of Softaj/Softovic.
We also funded an income generation project for returnees from the Roma, Ashkali
and Egyptian communities and supported the strengthening of the rule of law in
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