Bosnia's Bar on Minorities in Parliament Ruled Illegal

Bosnia's bar on minorities in parliament ruled illegal

Afua Hirsch, legal affairs correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 December 2009 18.47 GMT

Bosnia's refusal to allow Jews and other minority groups to stand for key elected positions was dealt a final blow today when the European court of human rights ruled the country's constitution violated fundamental human rights.

Jakob Finci, a Bosnian Jew who is currently the country's ambassador to Switzerland, was prevented from standing for parliament and the presidency under the Bosnian constitution. Analysts described the case, brought by Finci and Dervo Sejdi, a Bosnian of Roma origin, as a landmark for ending discrimination across Europe.

"The European court has made it clear that race-based exclusion from political office, such as that suffered by Jews and Roma in Bosnia, has no place in Europe," said Clive Baldwin, senior legal adviser at Human Rights Watch, who represented Finci for the Minority Rights Group. "The US, EU and the other states who still play a major role in Bosnia, should ensure the ruling is put into immediate effect by backing a change in the constitution."

The decision, by a grand chamber of 17 judges in the court's most authoritative panel, found that the applicants' continued ineligibility to stand for election to parliament violated the rights against discrimination and free elections set out in the European convention on human rights.

"I am delighted that the European court has recognised the wrong that was done in the constitution 14 years ago," Finci said. "The Bosnian politicians need to right the wrongs in the constitution quickly."

The case, which dates back to 2006, arose from a requirement that parliamentary candidates had to declare affiliation with one of the "constituent peoples" of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to stand for election.

The ruling is likely to raise further questions about Bosnia's constitution, which was created alongside the 1995 Dayton peace agreement that ended the war in the region.

The rule prohibiting minorities to stand for the presidency and parliament has its origins in a power-sharing agreement that prevents the Bosnian parliament from adopting decisions against the will of the country's "constituent peoples" and created a representative system of Bosniacs [Bosnian Muslims], Croats and Serbs.

Pressure to change the constitution, agreed following extensive involvement by the US and the EU, has been at the heart of negotiations to allow Bosnia to enter the EU.

The court's ruling was highly critical of power-sharing rules which the court said initially contributed to peace during the fragile ceasefire in the country, but which were no longer justified given the improvement in relations between Bosnia's ethnic groups since Dayton.

"We knew for a long time that our constitution and election law was not in accordance with the European convention," said Jadranka Nejodic, Bosnian ambassador in London.

"Our constitution was an annex to the Dayton peace agreement, and a great deal of time has passed since 1995.We know this judgment is legally binding and as soon as we have received and read the judgment – it's 57 pages – a timetable will be set for implementing it."