Kovačević protiv Bosne i Hercegovine: da li federalizam i konsocijacija imaju značaja?
Sažetak
The subject of the paper is the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case Kovačević v. Bosnia and Herzegovina. The judgment is a reflection of the Court’s opinion on discrimination against particular groups of citizens who may or may not, depending on the approach and attitude, use their active voting right in the elections for the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly. The novelty of this judgement is in the fact that the Court analysed the possibility of exercising active voting right while in previous cases it decided on discrimination against groups of citizens regarding the exercise of passive voting right.
The judgement has to be criticised for several reasons and from several angles. The Court did not take into account the legal nature of the Presidency and the House of Peoples which led it to wrong conclusions regarding discrimination against. It only took into consideration that the Others as well as some segments of constituent peoples could not be represented in these institutions. However, this fact has already been contained in several other judgements. The novelty is that the Court has judged that a voter cannot exercise the active voting right since he/she cannot vote for his/her preferred candidate for his/her ethnic affiliation and/or Entity place of residence.
The purpose of this paper is to challenge this view and particularly to oppose the attitude that the implementation of this judgement has to introduce the solution that Bosnia and Herzegovina has to become one electoral district.
Reference
Ademović, N., Marko, J., Marković, G. (2012). Ustavno pravo Bosne i Hercegovine. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung u BiH.
Bonifati, L. (2023) The European Court of Human Rights on Kovačević: time for constitutional change in Bosnia and Herzegovina? Diritti Comparati, https://www.diritticomparati.it/the-european-court-of-human-rights-on-kovacevic-time-for-constitutional-change-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina/
Borić, F. (2023). Bosnia-Herzegovina political briefing: New judgment of Strasbourg against BiH: What next?, China-CEE Institute, Vol. 65, No. 1 (BH), https://china-cee.eu/2023/09/18/bosnia-herzegovina-political-briefing-new-judgment-of-strasbourg-against-bih-what-next/
Kasapović, M. (2005). Bosnia and Herzegovina: Consociational or Liberal Democracy? Politička misao : časopis za politologiju, Vol. 42 No. 5, 3–30.
Kushtrim, I. (2023) Kovačević v Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the saga of the Dayton Peace Agreement’s incompatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights. EJIL: Talk! Blog of the European Journal of International Law. https://www.ejiltalk.org/kovacevic-v-bosnia-and-herzegovina-and-the-saga-of-the-dayton-peace-agreements-incompatibility-with-the-european-convention-on-human-rights/
Marković, G. (2012). Bosanskohercegovački federalizam. Službeni glasnik – University Press.
Marković, G. (2021) Ustavni lavirint. Aporije ustavnog sistema Bosne i Hercegovine. Službeni glasnik.
McCrudden, C., O’Leary, B. (2013). Courts and Consociations, or How Human Rights Courts May De-stabilize Power-sharing Settlements. The European Journal of International Law Vol. 24 no. 2, 477–501.
Nurkić, B. (2023) Kovačević v Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Complete Guidelines for the Constitutional Reform in B&H. Strasbourg Observers. https://strasbourgobservers.com/2023/09/12/kovacevic-v-bosnia-and-herzegovina-the-complete-guidelines-for-the-constitutional-reform-in-bh/
Steiner, C., Ademović, N. (2010). Ustav Bosne i Hercegovine. Komentar. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung u BiH.
Woelk, J. (2023) Opening Pandora’s Box? Verfassungsblog on matters constitutional, https://verfassungsblog.de/opening-pandoras-box/
Kovačević v. Bosnia and Herzegovina (Application no. 43651/22)
Pilav v. Bosnia and Herzegovina (application no. 41939/07).
Pudarić v. Bosnia and Herzegovina (application no. 55799/18).
Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina (Applications Nos. 27996/06 and 34836/06).
Šlaku v. Bosnia and Herzegovina (application no. 56666/12).
Udruženje mladih pravnika u BiH: “Nove ideje, bolji Ustav”, 2010, Pravni institut u BiH, https://lawinstitute.ba/docs/Amandmani%20na%20Ustav%20BiH%20od%20mladih%20pravnika.pdf
Ustav Bosne i Hercegovine: izmjene i dopune, 2010, Forum građana Tuzle, https://forumtz.org/dokumenti/
Zornić v. Bosnia and Herzegovina (application no. 3681/06).
