Komšić: EU directs us to protect individual rights of citizens

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - It would be good if all political actors, within the framework of fulfilling obligations from the measures and recommendations stated in the opinion of the European Commission, consider the modalities of necessary amendments to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said the member of the BiH Presidency Željko Komšić after the presentation of the progress report on the Western Balkan countries and Turkey today in Brussels.

Komšić said that in BiH it is necessary to ensure full protection of individual human rights of all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in order to fulfill one of the basic prerequisites for the continuation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's path towards EU candidate status.

"If such political will is absent, then Bosnia and Herzegovina will be stopped on its path and become a complete hostage of retrograde policies that Europe clearly does not see within its own values and norms from the European legal acquis," said Komšić.

"The measures and recommendations that the European Commission highlighted as necessary for obtaining candidate status for membership in the European Union are of particular importance, because they aim to ensure the initial or fundamental alignment of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the European legal acquis. The final alignment will occur after BiH obtains candidate status and begins negotiations on the thirty-five chapters of the European legal acquis.

I believe that under fundamental alignment, the constitutionally established protection of collective rights should be changed to the protection of individual rights of all citizens of BiH, as stated in the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, in the package Sejdić and Finci and other related judgments. For BiH, the most important judgment from Strasbourg is in the case 'Zornić', which in paragraph 43 states, I quote:

'In the judgment Sejdić and Finci, the Court noted that at the time when the contested constitutional provisions were adopted, there was a very fragile ceasefire on the ground, and that the aim of those provisions was to stop the brutal conflict marked by genocide and 'ethnic cleansing'. The nature of that conflict was such that it was necessary to agree on 'constituent peoples' in order to ensure peace. However, now, more than eighteen years after the end of the tragic conflict, there can be no reason for maintaining the contested constitutional provisions in force. The Court expects that, without further delay, a democratic order will be established. Given the need to ensure genuine political democracy, the Court considers that the time has come for a political system that will ensure for every citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina the right to stand for election to the Presidency and the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina, without discrimination on the basis of ethnic affiliation and without granting special rights to constituent peoples to the exclusion of minorities or citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina,'" said Komšić.

The European Commission today adopted its annual assessment of reform implementation in the Western Balkans and Turkey and recommendations on what steps these countries should take to begin EU accession negotiations.