Bosnia and Herzegovina: Experts appointed by the court into the case against environmental women human rights defenders

On 25 April 2023, the preliminary hearings of the two women environmental rights defenders Sara Tuševljak and Sunčica Kovačević took place at the Basic Court of Sokolac in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The judge accepted the company’s request for expert assessment and appointed experts from the construction, hydrological, meteorological and forestry sectors with a mandate to examine the sites where the hydro-power plants are planned to be built and all relevant documentation in the case. The court appointed four experts in the case of Sara Tuševljak and three in that of Sunčica Kovačević. The women human rights defenders’ attorneys objected to the appointment of experts, saying that the two defenders are not scientific experts but rather are activists and do not have the same knowledge that these experts have. They based their public statements on what they witnessed when they visited the site as well as the documents they had.

At the hearing, the legal representative of the investor company BUK d.o.o offered a deal to the women environmental rights defenders. According to the offer, the investor company would drop its complaint and drop the case against them if they renounced their previous statements. However, both Sara Tuševljak and Sunčica Kovačević refused the deal, standing by their initial statements which they said were made based on what had happened and what they had witnessed.

The court accepted all documents presented by both parties as evidence and postponed the hearing pending the submission of the experts’ reports to the court, which may not be before September 2023.

From 21 January 2022 to 30 June 2022, the women environmental rights defenders Sunčica Kovačević and Sara Tuševljak received three defamation lawsuits and warnings by company BUK d.o.o. The SLAPP suits (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) are filed against the environmental rights defenders as a result of their public campaign against the environmental impact of the company’s hydro-power plants. Additionally, the two environmental activists have been threatened with further legal action.

Download the Urgent Appeal

Sunčica Kovačević and Sara Tuševljak are women environmental rights defenders who are part of an informal civil initiative “Stop building small hydro-power plants on Kasindolska river”. This initiative has been speaking out against the damaging human rights and environmental impacts linked to the construction of hydro-power plants and showcasing the risks through demonstrations, legal actions, press conferences and photo exhibitions. The civil initiative gained more than 2,000 signatures against the construction of the hydro-power plants and support from the mayors of all three affected municipalities objecting to the construction of small hydro-power plants on the Kasindolska river.

On 30 June 2022, Sara Tuševljak and Sunčica Kovačević received two warnings from the company BUK d.o.o with headquarters in Istočno Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina owned by Belgian-based Green Invest. The company BUK d.o.o operates a small hydro-power plant on the Kasindolska river near Sarajevo, and the investor has plans to build two more hydro-power plants in Samar and Slapi. Since the start of construction, the local defenders voiced concern about the potentially negative impact of the these plants on the Kasindolska river and its surrounding environment, including cutting down forests of high conservation value and soil erosion due to the construction of access roads.

In June 2022, the initiative “Stop building small hydro-power plants on Kasindolska river” celebrated two years and organised a photo exhibition showcasing the environmental impact on the river and the risks of further hydro-power construction. Following the exhibition, Sunčica Kovačević and Sara Tuševljak received two formal warnings from BUK d.o.o requesting to stop to all the activities of environmental rights defence, otherwise they will sue them.

On 7 June 2022, Sara Tuševljak received the second defamation lawsuit against her filed on the 1 April 2022 by the company BUK d.o.o. On 9 February 2022, the court delivered Sara Tuševljak and Sunčica Kovačević the first defamation lawsuits filed by the company BUK d.o.o on the 21 January 2022.

In August 2020, Sunčica Kovačević and Sara Tuševljak together with local environmentalists took legal action against BUK d.o.o and as a result the District Court in Banjaluka revoked the environmental permit for Samar hydropower plant, from July to September 2021 and in December 2021 cancelled its construction permit. The Slapi hydropower plant construction is in the planning s tage, the Podivič hydropower plant is currently operating and Samar is currently under construction. Despite the loss of the environmental permits, the Podivič hydropower plant continued to operate, with their permit being reissued in June 2022 by the Republika Srpska’s Supreme Court just before Sunčica Kovačević and Sara Tuševljak were law-suited by the company. The women environmental rights defenders with its counterparts have appealed the decision before the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and are awaiting the final ruling.

Front Line Defenders expresses deep concern at the lawsuits against the women environmental rights defenders Sunčica Kovačević and Sara Tuševljak. It also believes that lawsuits have the characteristics of Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation, which are increasingly used in the region against human rights defenders.