Strasbourg Court Demands Bosnia and Herzegovina Become a Civic State, Based on the "One Person, One Vote" Principle!

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, in its latest ruling against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Azra Zornić case, has affirmed the right of citizens to not declare any national or other affiliation, says Zikreta Ibrahimović, Deputy Agent of Bosnia and Herzegovina before the Court of Human Rights, in a statement to the BH News Agency Patria (NAP).

- This ruling means that declaring national or any other affiliation is a freedom, not an obligation or simply an interest. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, it has become the prerequisite of all prerequisites, contrary to all internationally recognized standards. Essentially, this calls for a civic Bosnia and Herzegovina based on the principle of one person - one vote, says Ibrahimović.

The Strasbourg Court ruled yesterday in favor of Azra Zornić, a member of the Social Democratic Party, who complained that she cannot be elected to the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina unless she declares herself as a member of a constituent people.

Following the "Sejdić-Finci" case, the Court accepted her appeal and further stated that the ruling against BiH in this case is a consequence of the failure to fulfill and implement the Sejdić-Finci ruling, which calls for extensive constitutional changes. Here, says Ibrahimović, it goes further and allows citizens not only to be Others, but to not declare their affiliation at all.

- It is widely known that the political elites of the "constituent peoples," to which absolutely all parties are aligned, have their main leverage in the infamous House of Peoples of BiH, which is nothing more than a negation of citizenship as such and a negation of individual rights guaranteed by the convention in favor of collective rights - she points out.

Cultural determinants, as she states, fall under freedom of thought, conscience, and religion and cannot have anything to do with the right to free elections.

- This lady simply refuses to declare which people or minority she belongs to, and that alone excludes her from the electoral process. This is no longer about preventing minorities from participating equally in elections; here, the citizen as an individual is called into question. The applicant does not declare herself as Other or Undecided; she does not declare herself at all. She refuses to fill in the field. This makes the entire constitutional system in BiH meaningless and impossible, no matter how accustomed we are to it - adds Ibrahimović.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has an obligation to implement this decision of the European Court of Human Rights, just like "Sejdić-Finci," but the authorities have been avoiding adopting constitutional reforms for years, which has blocked BiH's European path, reports NAP.