Project Description
The overall objective of the Project is to increase the efficiency of the courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina through targeted interventions. 

The main focus of the project is to significantly reduce the number of old cases and shorten court procedures (case processing time) for new cases by reforming and optimizing court management and governance of the judiciary.

Following activities have been conceived to achieve the Project results:

1. Management of the judiciary

    1.1.  Management of the judiciary by HJPC BiH;
Production requirements set by the HJPC must be fair and clearly communicated, ownership to the requirements should be established among the court presidents, tools for monitoring the courts and collecting relevant information regarding production must be available to the HJPC, staff to make analysis of the data is needed, efficient channels of communication with court presidents must be established and the HJPC must be able and willing to act on the analysis it has made.        

    1.2.  Management of courts
Efficient courts require court presidents trained in modern management techniques, good knowledge by the managers of issues related to the status of the judicial production, knowledge and ownership by all staff to common goals and a feeling of accountability towards the goals that the team is supposed to achieve.

    1.3. Management of court cases by individual judges
In the end each court case has to be processed by an individual judge and even if the working environment for that judge is perfectly designed and the judges have the necessary legal knowledge and the most modern tools at hand, the processing of cases will continue to be slow if the judges are not trained to be good at processing their cases efficiently. 

2. Court settlement
Furtherance of the application of the institution of court settlement would reduce the number of unresolved cases in the courts and create a more effective alternative for the resolution of incoming cases.

3. Public relations
The lack of fact based knowledge regarding the judiciary among the general public and the tendency to make the judiciary responsible for ills that are outside its control, makes it necessary for the HJPC to design and implement a more active and forward leaning public relation strategy with the objective to enhance the trust of the judiciary.

4. More efficient processing of utility cases
Court cases related to unpaid utility bills are perfectly suited for automation through electronic case processing. Introduction of the tailor-made SOKOP-software in all first instance courts in BIH will speed up the processing of such cases and free up administrative resources that may be utilized for actual enforcement of the unpaid and enforceable debt.

5. Modernization of court buildings  
A modern functionally equipped work space is one of the prerequisites for the efficient work of judicial institutions.

Duration
May 2015 to May 2018 ( 3 years)

Location
Bosnia and Herzegovina

Project Budget
Total Budget: 2 milions eur

Contributing Donor
Governments of Norway and Netherlands  

Project partners
 Implementing Partner:  HJPC BiH

Cooperation  Partners:  The Norwegian Courts Administration (NCA), The Council for the Judiciary of Netherlands, District Court of Amsterdam and Municipal Court of Sarajevo 

Contact
Head of Project:
Mrs. Ana Bilic Andrijanic
Tel:  033 707 553 ili E-mail: ana.bilic@pravosudje.ba

Deputy Head of Project:
Mr. Kenan Alisah
Tel: 033 707 581 ili E-mail: kenan.alisah@pravosudje.ba