The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is faced with obstructions in its work due to political pressures, and the blockade of the functioning of the court undermines the rights of citizens, the court's president Valerija Galic said on Friday.

The nine-member court has been downsized to six judges: three foreigners, from Switzerland, Germany and Albania, Croat Valerija Galic and two Bosniaks, Mirsad Ceman and Seada Palavric.

In late 2023, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said that the Serb entity of Republika Srpska would no longer appoint judges from RS after the expiry of the term of the two judges from the RS. Miodrag Simovic retired from the position in 2022 and the other RS representative, Zlatko Knezevic, requested early retirement in 2024 due to pressure by the RS authorities.

Scaled down to only six judges, the court is likely to have difficulty functioning normally and cannot hand down judgements when citizens complain about their constitutional rights being violated.

“This is an alarming situation!” said the court's vice president, Swiss Judge Helen Keller.

One more Croat representative is about to be appointed. The Croat HDZ BiH party has proposed Marin Vukoja for this position, and in 2023 he ranked first as the candidate for the position. However, his appointment has been hindered so far by problems in decision-making and conflicts between the Opposition and the ruling majority in the Croat-Bosniak Federation.

Galic said that backlog cases are piling up.

In 2023, the court received 5,497 appeals and managed to solve 1,510.

Backlog cases have risen to 8,000.