Bosnia's Constitution and its Election Law contain “systemic discrimination” which push the country away from its Euro-Atlantic integration, Presidency member Zeljko Komsic said on Thursday on the ninth anniversary of the European Court of Human Rights ruling regarding rights of minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
To date, Bosnian authorities have not implemented the ruling.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in December 2009 that Bosnia's constitutional provisions on the election for the state House of Peoples and the Presidency violated the European Convention on Human Rights.
The plaintiffs were two Bosnian nationals, Dervo Sejdic, a Roma, and Jakob Finci, a Jew, who were unable to run in the election for the Presidency as a result of the 1995 Constitution that was created as a part of the Dayton peace treaty, which ended the 1992-95 war in the country.
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A power-sharing provision said that the posts in the tripartite Presidency and the Upper House would be reserved for the Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, three major ethnic groups in Bosnia.
“It is about time to stop deceiving ourselves and playing European road. European democratic values do not recognise any exclusive representation of people,” said Komsic, the Croat Presidency member whose recent election triggered fierce reactions among nationalist Croat parties who do not see him as “a legitimate” representative.
Kosmic himself was a candidate of a left-leaning Democratic Front (DF) and although was running as a Croat candidate, is known for civic orientation in his political stances.
There is no reason, according to Komsic, to keep disputable constitutional provisions alive 18 years after the war ended.
“The (European) court deems the time has come for a political system that would ensure every citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina a right to run in election for the Presidency and the House of Peoples without a discrimination on bases of ethnic affiliation and without entitling constituent peoples with special rights,” said Komsic in a press conference at the State Presidency building.
The Presidency member recalled that the European Union's Foreign Affairs Council told Bosnian authorities on two occasions, in 2017 and 2018, they must refrain from political moves that would hinder the implementation of the Sejdic-Finci ruling.
“It is clear here there are political forces, we all know who they are, who are deliberately ignoring the conclusions of EU institutions, pulling Bosnia and Herzegovina back in terms of its European integration,” said Komsic without referring to any specific name.
The press conference was also briefly addressed by Dervo Sejdic and Jakob Finci.
