The Delegation of the Security and Defence Committee participated in the Regional Seminar for Parliamentarians on OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security, which was held in Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 23 to 25 October 2013.

Within today’s work, the Chairperson of the Committee Mr Mevludin Nuhodžić moderated the session titled “Building of integrity in the field of defence”. With that regard, he pointed out that only through building and implementation of the adequate legal mechanisms, honouring the principles of good governance in defence institutions with clearly set codes of conduct which were observed, could we talk about the increase of transparency, promotion of responsibility and strengthening of the public trust, as clear indicators of built integrity in this field.

Colonel Ole A. Fauske, Deputy Commander of NATO headquarters in Sarajevo and Chief of the NATO Advisory Team, and Ambassador Valeri Ratchev, Senior Professional Advisor in DCAF spoke on this topic.

In continuation, Ms Dušanka Majkić, Chairperson of the Joint Commission, spoke on the role of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Joint Commission for Defence and Security in democratic control and supervision over security and defence sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as on the experiences in budget supervision in this sector.     

Within the following session, they spoke on the role of parliamentarians in ensuring human rights of the members of the armed forces. Mr Boško Šiljegović, Parliamentary Military Commissioner of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Mr Oyvind Hoyen, ODIHR Human Rights Officer also held presentations. Additionally, the experiences of Macedonian Parliament in this field were presented by the member of the Commission on Defence and Security Ms Marija Rashkovska.  

The dedication of our country and the Security and Defence Committee to implementation of the Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security was highlighted at the gathering, and the quality of cooperation of the Committee with the OSCE was pointed out as an example of good practice in the region.

The gathering was organised by the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina in cooperation with the Joint Committee on Defence and Security of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina and OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre, with support of RACVIAC, DCAF and NATO headquarters in Sarajevo.

The Chairperson and the Members of the Committee on Security and Defence Mr Mevludin Nuhodžić, Mr Obrad Mišo Stanišić and Mr Velizar Kaluđerović participated in the work of the gathering.