Double efforts to implement European Court of Human Rights judgments

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - To implement the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, it is necessary for the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to make efforts to reach a consensus on amendments to the Constitution and the Election Law, as stated in the 2021 Report of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

The Report “Supervision of the execution of judgments and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights” of the Committee of Ministers for 2021 states that this body held four meetings, and that the group of cases “Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina” was discussed at all of them.

“The Committee adopted a new interim resolution (the fourth since 2011) calling on the authorities and political leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina to make every effort to reach a consensus on the necessary amendments to the Constitution and electoral legislation, so that the elections in October 2022 are held in accordance with the Court's judgments,” it is stated, adding that the Director General for Human Rights held four-day online consultations with the authorities and representatives of the international community in BiH on the long delay in executing the “Sejdić and Finci” judgment, which is one of five European Court judgments on ethnic discrimination.

“The availability of the Council of Europe, particularly the Venice Commission, to provide necessary assistance to the authorities, with the aim of ensuring timely adopted reforms of the Electoral System, was particularly emphasized,” also writes in the Report published on March 30.

According to the judgment in the lawsuit of Jakob Finci and Dervo Sejdić from 2009, discrimination was established against those who are not constituent peoples in BiH or those who do not meet the combination of requirements for ethnic origin and place of residence regarding their right to run for the House of Peoples and the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In addition to this one, four more judgments were delivered due to the prevention of equal participation in democratic elections.

Azra Zornić sued the state because she was not allowed to run for the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH and the BiH Presidency because she does not declare herself as a member of the constituent peoples in BiH.

Ilijaz Pilav, as a Bosniak living in Republika Srpska, could not run for the member of the BiH Presidency from that entity, while Samira Šlaka, as a member of a national minority, was not allowed to run for the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament and the member of the Presidency.

In the case of Svetozar Pudarić, it was established that the state discriminated against him regarding the right to run for a member of the Presidency from the Serb people from the territory of the Federation of BiH.

The Committee of Ministers, as the statutory body of the Council of Europe composed of the foreign ministers of the member states, according to the Report, has completed the supervision of the execution of the “Orlović and others” judgment. According to the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights from 2019, the Orthodox church had to be removed from the yard of Fate Orlović in Konjević Polje.

Although the deadline was April 1, 2020, with a delay of more than a year, the church was demolished last year.

“The authorities took measures and removed the church from the applicants’ land,” the Report states.

In the section on unexecuted or postponed executions of judgments, the case “Kunić and others v. BiH” is mentioned, in which the applicants complained about the non-execution of judgments rendered in their favor. As explained in the Report, encouraging progress was made during 2021, with three cantons where problems existed establishing action plans and repayment plans with the aim of executing domestic judgments, which the European Court assessed positively.

According to the judgments of the municipal courts, applicants were ordered to be paid various amounts for unpaid employment benefits, which could not be executed because, in the case of execution, banks informed that budgetary funds for that purpose had already been spent.

Following Kunić's appeal to the Constitutional Court of BiH, which preceded the appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, the Constitutional Court determined that “the execution of judgments did not occur because there were no funds in the execution debtor's transaction account,” meaning the Zenica-Doboj Canton did not determine the exact number of unexecuted judgments, nor did it compile a sum and list of claims, which was the essence of the problem.

By the European Court's judgment from 2017, the execution of domestic judgments had to be ensured within three months of the judgment becoming final.

According to the Report, the European Court of Human Rights awarded 175,713 euros in compensation last year to those who suffered violations of rights from the European Convention on Human Rights from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The need for member states to double their efforts to improve their capacity to execute the Court's judgments was emphasized in this report, as well as in last year's report.

(detektor.ba)