29/04/2010 Session
Strasbourg, 29.04.2010 – Bosnia and Herzegovina must urgently launch an institutionalised process for preparing a comprehensive package of amendments to the Constitution – in particular to end the discrimination in elections to some bodies – the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said in a resolution unanimously approved today.
Such a process – which should continue after the elections – should involve domestic legal experts, and draw on European expertise, including from the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, the parliamentarians said.
In their report, co-rapporteurs Kimmo Sasi (Finland, EPP/CD) and Karin Woldseth (Norway, EDG) spelled out the implications of failing to carry out this constitutional reform, including the possible suspension of the country’s parliamentary delegation or its voting rights: “If the October elections are held in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and its additional Protocols, as well as of the Court’s judgment, the question of the democratic legitimacy of the members of the Presidency and delegates to the House of Peoples will arise,” they said.
If, after the election, there is a continued persent failure by to honour its obligations and commitments, the Assembly could – as a last resort – recommend the country’s suspension from the Council of Europe, they said.