At the conference organized by the Foundation of Local Democracy, the draft strategy for the development of free legal aid in the Sarajevo Canton for the period 2016-2018 was presented, and the introductory speech was given by the Minister of Justice and Administration of Sarajevo Canton Mario Nenadic.
The Minister stated that the system of providing free legal aid, with it's importance for BiH, should be extended to a larger number of citizens. This means that adequate capacities should be ensured, and the number of lawyers increased.
Before anything, this type of assistance should be provided to beneficiaries entitled to free legal aid by the Law.
President of the Municipal Court in Sarajevo Janja Jovanovic stressed that the judiciary is very interested in the work of the free legal aid, noting that from the services for free legal aid the courts are receiving professionally arranged submissions, and the number of such cases has been increased since 2013 and most are misdemeanor, family and criminal cases.
Director of the Institute for legal aid of Canton Sarajevo Velija Nuhanovic presented the Strategic Plan and Action plan of development of free legal aid. He stressed that the overall objective of the strategy is improvement to ensure maximum utilization, efficiency and sustainability of the system of free legal aid in Canton, and provided strategic directions and activities are the coordination of services of such assistance, availability, education and sustainability.
Amer Homarac, legal adviser and coordinator at the Center for Legal Aid (FLD) stressed the important role of free legal aid providers working directly with the beneficiaries with an insight into the real needs, and their advocacy role that should not be neglected.
Development of the proposed strategy is the result of cooperation, exchange of information, research and consultations between the Foundation of Local Democracy and the Ministry of Justice and Administration, Municipal Court in Sarajevo, Institute for legal aid of Canton Sarajevo, the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman in BiH, the Center for Social Work and municipal services for legal aid: Stari Grad, Vogosca, Ilijas and Trnovo with support provided by the Ministry of Justice and Administration.
