Čović at UN speaks about BiH Election Law and importance of protecting human rights

GENEVA, (Patria) - Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Dragan Čović addressed today the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

During his address, Čović reminded that BiH is a country that faced the most severe forms of human rights violations during the war in its recent past. He emphasized that as a multinational and multireligious community, BiH is committed to respecting the principles of human rights and fundamental freedoms by strengthening democracy, multicultural dialogue and respect for ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, and by fighting all forms of discrimination and intolerance.

During his speech, Čović also said that according to current provisions, the BiH Election Law is discriminatory towards minority communities, preventing their members from running or providing opportunities to be elected to positions in the BiH Presidency and the upper house of parliament, which are reserved for members of constituent peoples. At the same time, said Čović, unconstitutional provisions of the Election Law disrupt the symmetry of rights between the constituent peoples of the state of BiH, placing them in an unequal position in terms of the possibility of electing their political representatives, thereby limiting and jeopardizing their equality in participation and co-decision-making within the institutions of the system.

"Such examples of serious violations of the constitutional peace agreement and the Constitution itself cannot be viewed outside the context of human rights protection, the full extent and manifestations of which can only be seen within the specific constitutional context," said Čović.

Interestingly, only six days before the address in Geneva, the representatives of HDZ BiH, whose leader is Čović, voted against the constitutionality of Serbs in three cantons with a Croatian majority, writes Patria.