ECHR issues four rulings on BiH, rejects review of House of Peoples' role, confirms Sejdic-Finci ruling

In two cases, it rejected requests by MP Zlatan Begic and the Democratic Front party's Zeljko Komsic to amend the country's political system, while in the other two, it found that Begic had been discriminated against through denial of his passive voting rights.

According to the ECHR website, the court dismissed appeals challenging the role of the upper House of Peoples, reserved for the country's three constituent peoples, which is crucial for the participation of Croats, the smallest of the three constituent peoples, in power-sharing.

The House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament comprises five representatives from each constituent people, with the right to veto decisions of the House of Representatives if they conflict with their interests. Begic had argued that the House of Peoples should not have equal decision-making power alongside the House of Representatives, claiming this arrangement discriminated against him and hindered effective democracy. The court rejected this claim.

In another ruling, the court upheld the 2022 formation of government following intervention by High Representative Christian Schmidt, who amended the Election Law on election night, reducing the ability of Bosniaks to elect delegates for Croats to the Federation entity's House of Peoples.

The ECHR characterised Begic's request to redefine the upper house's role as an "actio popularis", a politically motivated attempt to change BiH's constitutional and electoral structures, rather than a defence of his personal rights.

The court also noted that the two chambers of the state Parliament, the lower House of Representatives and the upper House of Peoples, need not reflect equal voter support, as one is indirectly elected. In a ruling on Schmidt's 2022 interventions, the court found that they did not discriminate against the Democratic Front.

Meanwhile, the ECHR upheld two of Begic's appeals, ruling that he had been discriminated against because, as a member of the "Others" category, he cannot participate in the election of the Federation's leadership or the state House of Representatives' leadership. These decisions continue the court's practice of urging BiH authorities to remove discrimination against citizens who do not identify with one of the three constituent peoples, as in the Sejdic-Finci case.

The rulings also follow previous ECHR case-law on the House of Peoples and Schmidt’s interventions, including the rejection last year of an appeal by Democratic Front politician Slaven Kovacevic, which the court deemed politically motivated rather than a claim of personal discrimination.

Judge Faris Vehabovic of BiH did not participate in these four cases, in line with ECHR rules to ensure impartiality and prevent conflicts of interest.