Vanja Bjelica-Prutina
Vanja Bjelica-Prutina was born in 1981 in Sarajevo.
She completed her primary and secondary education in Istočno Sarajevo. She graduated from the Faculty of Law in Istočno Sarajevo in 2006.
She started her career in 2007 as the legal trainee-volunteer at the Basic Court in Sokolac, Istočno Sarajevo Division, and she continued her further professional engagement in judiciary through the Judiciary Informatization Project if the Secretariat of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, working as an educator i.e. an analyst.
As from January 2009 she starts working in a private law office, getting the training for independent practicing of the law. She passed the bar exam in June 2009, whereafter she continued working in the law office until meeting the condition for registration in the Register of Lawyers and preparing for self-employment as a lawyer.
She started practicing the law independently in August 2011 by registration in the Register of Lawyers of the Bar Association of Republika Srpska. She continued working in her law office until June 2015. In practicing of the law and provision of legal aid in the most complex and diverse cases she inter alia engaged in provision of professional legal aid in cases concerning the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the process of analyzing electoral processes and related complaints, she provided legal aid and professional advice in drafting of electoral appeals, applying the experiences acquired in the electoral processes in which she participated as an observer while studying.
In the period from June 2015 to July 2018 she was engaged as a legal expert and appointed legal adviser at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in the period from July 2018 to February 2019 she worked in the Office of the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Working as an advisor she was engaged on the most complex legal issues under competence of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e. the Office of the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On February 26, 2019 she was appointed acting agent of the Council of Ministers of BiH before the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg, where she also worked as the Head of the Office in the period from August 26 to November 26, 2019. Working as an acting agent of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina she represented the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina before the European Court for Human Rights in line with the European Convention on Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its protocols, assuring communication between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Court for Human Rights. As an authorized representative she negotiated with the parties to the proceedings before the Court for Human Rights aimed at attainment of amicable settlement, and followed execution of the decisions of the European Court for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, informing the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe thereof. As a legal expert of Bosnia and Herzegovina she participated in the working groups of the Council of Europe, and in different working and inter-departmental groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
She was appointed member of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina on March 11, 2020 by the Decision on appointment and taking of the office and termination of the duties to the members of the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly. At the session of the Bih CEC held on March 16, 2020 she was elected president of the BiH Central Election Commission, and is currently holds the office. She has active knowledge of English language.