Dervo Sejdic, who successfully sued Bosnia and Herzegovina at the European Court of Human Rights, submitted his own proposal for constitutional reform and changing BiH’s election law to the Inter-Agency Working Group tasked with the issue.
Sejdic, who is the head of the Roma Information Centre Kali Sara, along with Jakob Finci, the head of the Jewish Community in the country, sued Bosnia because the Constitution does not allow them to run for president or member of the upper house of the parliament.
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That is because according to the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, the country’s presidency consists of representatives of Bosnia’s three constituent peoples – the Bosniaks, the Serbs and the Croats. Its House of Peoples is also filled with members of only those groups.
This violates the rights of the country’s minorities and in 2009 the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ordered the country to remove this discrimination from its constitution.
Since then, nothing has been done to implement the ruling, which not only concerns minorities but also members of constitutive peoples who live in areas of the country dominated by one of the other two constituent peoples.
Sejdic’s proposal comes as political leaders in the country are trying to reach a compromise on amending the law.
Sejdic proposes would essentially entail a change in the wording of the current Preamble of the Constitution, he explained.
Thus, it would read “Bosnia and Herzegovina is a democratic and social state of its citizens, the constituent peoples Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs and national minorities.”
As for the Bosnian Parliament, Sejdic proposes:
“The House of Peoples consists of 4 clubs: the Club of Bosniaks, the Club of Croats, the Club of Serbs and the Club of National Minorities and Citizens.”
“The House of Representatives consists of 46 members, 30 members from the Federation (FBiH) entity, of which 28 are members of the constituent peoples plus two members of national minorities and citizens, and 16 from the territory of Republika Srpska plus two members of the national minorities and citizens ”.
As for the Presidency, Sejdic’s proposal states that it should still consist of three members – two members who are each elected directly from the territory of FBiH, and one member who is elected directly from the territory of the Republika Srpska.
However, their ethnic determinations would be deleted.
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