CCPR/C/BIH/CO/2 (b) The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol on 12 March 2010; (c) The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on 18 January 2012; and (d) The Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on 24 October 2008. C. Principal matters of concern and recommendations 5. While noting that the Office of the Ombudsperson has been accredited with “A” status by the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and that the State party intends to designate it as a national mechanism to prevent torture under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, the Committee is concerned at the Office’s lack of financial autonomy and the recent budget cuts that threaten the full implementation of its mandate in the promotion and protection of human rights in the State party (art. 2). The State party should strengthen its efforts to ensure that the Office of the Ombudsperson enjoys financial autonomy and is provided with adequate financial and human resources commensurate with the additional activities conferred upon it. 6. The Committee recalls its previous recommendation (CCPR/C/BIH/CO/1, para. 8) and expresses its regret that the Constitution and Election Law of the State party continues to exclude persons who do not belong to one of the State party’s “constituent peoples”, namely Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs, from being elected to the House of Peoples and to the tripartite Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Committee particularly regrets that, notwithstanding its previous recommendations and the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Dervo Sejdić and Jakob Finci, application Nos. 27996/06 and 34836/06, handed down on 22 December 2009, efforts to amend the Constitution have stalled such that the law continues to exclude citizens from certain groups from participating in elections that were held in October 2010 (arts. 2, 25 and 26). The Committee reiterates its previous concluding observations (CCPR/C/BIH/CO/1, para. 8) that the State party should adopt an electoral system that guarantees equal enjoyment of the rights of all citizens under article 25 of the Covenant, irrespective of ethnicity. In this regard, the Committee recommends that the State party, as a matter of urgency, amend its Constitution and Election Law to remove provisions that discriminate against citizens from certain ethnic groups by preventing them from participating in elections. 7. While appreciating efforts to deal with war crime cases such as the implementation of the National War Crimes Processing Strategy, the Committee remains concerned at the slow pace of prosecutions, particularly those relating to sexual violence, and the lack of support to victims of such crimes. The Committee is also concerned at the lack of efforts to harmonize jurisprudence on war crimes among entities and that entity-level courts use the archaic Criminal Code of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that does not, inter alia, define crimes against humanity, command responsibility, sexual slavery and forced pregnancy. The Committee is concerned that this might affect consistency in sentencing among entities (arts. 2 and 14). The State party should expedite the prosecution of war crime cases. The State party should also continue to provide adequate psychological support to victims of sexual violence, particularly during the conduct of trials. Furthermore, the State party should ensure that the judiciary in all entities strongly pursues efforts aimed at harmonizing jurisprudence on war crimes and that charges for war crimes are not 2