X. CONCLUSION

In November 2000 the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska, the three respondent Parties, decided, upon a proposal of the High Representative, to extend the legal mandate of the Human Rights Chamber through December 2003. Given the Chamber's caseload, together with the slow progress in the effective functioning of the national judicial system, any other outcome would have been disastrous for the protection of human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Unfortunately, this agreement has not been followed by a financial commitment to the Chamber by the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It had been one of the conditions for Bosnia and Herzegovina to accede to the Council of Europe to increase its financial responsibility for the functioning of the Chamber. The State has proposed that only KM 100,000 be allocated to the Chamber from its 2001 budget. In 2000 it had allocated KM 400,000 and even then the Chamber received only KM 250,000 of that amount. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country with the most comprehensive system for the protection of human rights in the world-on paper. A serious commitment by the State to provide support to the institutions that protect those human rights, however, is lacking.

What will be the future of the Human Rights Chamber? This question was a topic of discussion within the international community during 2000. It was proposed by the United States Department of State and the Office of the High Representative that the Chamber should eventually merge with the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was recognized, however, that this should occur only after Bosnia and Herzegovina ratifies the European Convention on Human Rights and after the adoption of a Constitutional Law to regulate the merger. Also, a merger of the Human Rights Chamber and the Constitutional Court will require both an amendment to the Constitution to enlarge the Constitutional Court's jurisdiction and substantive changes to the Constitutional Court's Rules of Procedure. These are complicated tasks fraught with difficulties that will take time to carry out. But, these changes are necessary if there is to be no diminution in the protection of human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina as stipulated in Article 10 para. 2 of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the meantime, the Chamber will plan its work through the end of 2003.