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PACE co-rapporteurs urge authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina to change the constitution in order to comply with the European Court of Human Rights’ recent judgment

23/12/2009 Monitoring

Strasbourg, 23.12.2009 - “We have taken note of the final judgment by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights which says that prohibiting a Rom and a Jew from standing for election to the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly and for the State Presidency in Bosnia and Herzegovina amounts to discrimination and breaches their electoral rights,” the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) co-rapporteurs on the functioning of democratic institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mevlüt Çavusoglu (Turkey, EDG) and Kimmo Sasi (Finland, EPP/CD), said today.

“The Court thereby confirms that the rules governing the elections to the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the Presidency of the country violate  the European Convention on Human Rights and its additional protocols.
 
In order to comply with the Court’s judgments, Bosnia and Herzegovina urgently has to change the constitution. We urge the authorities to immediately take all the necessary steps, especially in the light of the forthcoming elections scheduled for October 2010,” the co-rapporteurs concluded.

Links

Judgment of the Grand Chamber of the Court of Strasbourg - Case of Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina Press release issued by the Court Media alert: PACE committee raises alarm over ‘deadlock’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina, again calls for dialogue over urgent Constitutional changes