Exactly sixteen years ago, European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, he issued a verdict in the case "Sejdić and Finci v Of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, which exposed the fundamental discrimination embedded in the Constitution BiH. Dervo Sejdić and Jakob Finci, citizens who do not belong to the constituent nations - Serbs, Croats or Bosniaks - are faced with the fact that the Constitution prevents them from running for the Presidency of BiH or the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament.
The court clearly established a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, requiring the removal of ethnic barriers to political participation. However, sixteen years later, that judgment remains a dead letter on paper, a symbol of complete political paralysis and lack of will to meet the elementary European standard, writes DW.
Sixteen years of disappointment
"I would like that as a society and state we never got into a position to fight for such things, which must be resolved with those kinds of decisions," says philosopher, sociologist and publicist Esad Baytal, noting that the tragedy is that someone allowed himself such an anti-civilizational paradox.
"Someone allowed himself that kind of attitude of not admitting to someone that he is a man," Baital said categorically.
The implementation of the verdict was attempted several times through amendments to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Election Law, but everything remained on attempts.
In 2012, a proposal came from the Republic of Srpska in the form of a practical solution that would enable the execution of the verdict without jeopardizing ethnic balance. Instead of the constitutional wording "a Serb is elected" as a member of the Presidency from the RS, a neutral wording was proposed according to which "one of Republika SrpskaThat proposal not only respected the spirit of the verdict, but opened up space for the equal candidacy of all RS citizens, including others, without disrupting the Dayton structure.
Unfortunately, that impulse was never answered in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where every constitutional discussion was suffocated in the eternal electoral reform and insistence on "legitimate representation of Croats".
"I did not believe that it would take 16 years for that decision to be implemented and for all citizens to be able to run in the elections," says one of the appellants, Jakob Finzi, disappointed by the lack of an agreement.
"I hope we won't wait another 16 years for that decision to be implemented," adds Finci.
Croatian demands and eternal electoral reform
For the second appellant, Derva Sejdić, there is no room for optimism. The whining of the representatives of the constituent nations, he believes, cements the absence of political will to change anything.
"I am not sure that the verdict will be implemented even in the next 16 or 60 years. The only way is the biological extinction of these political groups that lead BiH and have no intention of changing the system," says Sejdić, who does not see a solution in this constellation of political forces, unless the implementation of the verdict becomes a clear condition in the process of BiH's accession to the European Union.
In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the "Sejdić-Finci" verdict became a hostage to Croatian demands for "legitimate representation". The Croatian parties, led by the HDZ of Bosnia and Herzegovina, persistently link its implementation to a complete reform of the Election Law, demanding that it ensure that "the Croatian people elect their own member of the Presidency" and the House of Peoples.
Those demands, although legitimate in the part that concerns the Croatian national interest, turn the verdict on the equality of the Others into a platform for strengthening the ethnic principle and creating new barriers.
Mental change
The Electoral Law has been under negotiation for years, but every draft gets stuck on the Croatian insistence that their issue be resolved first, while "Sejdić-Finci" is only mentioned in passing.
"The paradox is that the political elites have allowed themselves to say to someone: you don't know who you are, I know who I am and I know better than you who you are. And you will not be who you are, what you say you are, because I tell you that you are what I tell you. It is a completely insane, anti-civilizational situation", says Baital, who also does not believe that this issue will be resolved soon.
"It is about the need for a mental change of generations. Because those who are now on the stage, while society is suffocating, are still there and maintain such a system - from family, kindergarten, school to society as a whole", concludes Baital.
Four election cycles after the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the "Sejdić-Finci" case remains an open wound in Bosnia and Herzegovina's democracy. A symbol of discrimination embedded in the Constitution and the Electoral Law, which denies all citizens full political participation. Without a domestic compromise, Bosnia and Herzegovina remains stuck on the European threshold, where the rights of minorities are sacrificed by the Dayton ethno-territorial balance.
Source: DW
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