Between 18 and 20 December, the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights carried out a mission to Sarajevo to discuss mainly the enforcement of final decisions ordering cantons to pay salary arrears (Kunić group) and explore prospects for a fresh start in the constitutional reform process (Sejdić and Finci group).
To this end, in cooperation with the Office of the Government Agent, a meeting was held with cantonal, the Federation and the State-level ministries of finance and the Constitutional Court. A senior lawyer from the European Court’s Registry was present to highlight the growing concern on the rising number of similar applications. The meeting was very timely as the influx of these applications has placed Bosnia and Herzegovina among top seven countries by number of pending cases before the European Court. It is expected that the Convention compliant settlement schemes will be presented shortly in good time ahead the Committee of Minister’s examination in June 2020.
The Department had also an encouraging exchange with the senior advisers in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and other stakeholders on the ground on the prospects of constitutional reform to eliminate discrimination in elections in view of the Committee of Ministers’ forthcoming examination of this point in March 2020 (Sejdić and Finci group). The Committee of Ministers invited the responsible minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina to that Human Rights’ meeting for an exchange on the strategy to eliminate discrimination in elections.
Upon the invitation by the Speaker of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mr Dragan Čović, the delegation also attended the Christmas reception providing an excellent opportunity for informal exchanges with him and other key decision makers in the country. It has been agreed that end January-beginning February 2020 the Department will be back to Sarajevo with a view to organising possibly an event to mark a fresh start in the efforts to put in place constitutional reform to eliminate discrimination in elections.
The constitutional reform today is more pressing than ever in view of two important anniversaries: on 22 December it will be ten years since the European Court rendered its Sejdić and Finci judgment and end of next year it will be 25 years since the Dayton Peace Agreement was inked.
Country factsheet on Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Court’s statistics on pending applications
Video item on the Christmas reception (in Bosnian)
Press item on the Christmas reception (in Bosnian)
