Message from Strasbourg: The Dayton framework offers space for the civic idea and its candidates

The judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case "Slaven Kovačević" did not kill hope for a civic state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It did not kill hope for the struggle for a civic state either, except among the faint-hearted. Moreover, the struggle continues.

True, the Court did not rule, nor did it suggest in its judgment, that Bosnia and Herzegovina should be a single electoral unit, electing either one president or in which all citizens elect each of the offered candidates for the Presidency of BiH, as was expected in some quarters from Kovačević's appeal.

Even if the Court had ruled so, that certainly would not mean that the system of electing the state leadership would change to suit the advocates of the civic principle. Because we know that implementing judgments is a more complex task than reading them.

The European Court, namely, clearly stated that it has no mandate to change the Dayton order. In other words, the Court in Strasbourg announced that it lacks the courage to prescribe a change to the constitutional structure that is a product of wartime reality. That wartime reality in which Bosnia and Herzegovina managed to defend itself against double aggression.

Strasbourg remained on the Dayton position regarding the balance between the ethnic and the civic. That balance is not only a Dayton category. Ever since Bosnia and Herzegovina has existed as a modern state, there has been a balance between the ethnic and the civic, cooperation but also mutual rivalry between the two concepts.

If one looks at the founding documents of the First Republic, such as the ZAVNOBiH Declarations, if one looks at the referendum question that gave birth to the Second Republic, the presence of both ethnic and civic components in the constitutional sense is clearly noticeable at the conceptual level.

Three decades of post-Dayton history have brought mixed fortunes for supporters of the ethnic and civic concepts. The pendulum has shifted slightly to one side or the other, depending on the nature of the High Representative's interventions.

However, the basic balance has never been disturbed. Nor was it disturbed after the latest judgment of the European Court. There are still real chances for strengthening both the idea of ethnic division of BiH and the chances for strengthening the idea of a civic BiH.

In the meantime, real life goes on, and battles are fought daily, but also through electoral cycles. Therefore, all those who prefer the civic concept should cast off the cloak of despondency and realize that the game is far from over.

We should therefore realize that Strasbourg directs us to fight within the Dayton system, which may not be equal but certainly offers opportunities, especially when it comes to the very election of the state leadership.

Consequently, the election of a civic candidate to the Presidency of BiH remains a matter of key importance, particularly when it comes to the election of the H candidate.

(M.T.)