Constitutional Court of BiH rules: Schmidt's amendments to the FBiH Constitution adopted on election night are discriminatory

(Patria) - The Constitutional Court of BiH has made a decision in the case "Albin Zuhrić and others" that the amendments to the FBiH Constitution and the BiH Election Law, adopted by High Representative Christian Schmidt on October 2, 2022, are discriminatory towards others because they were prevented from proposing candidates for the (Vice)President of FBiH.

The Constitutional Court concluded that there is a violation of the right to non-discrimination from Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 to the European Convention, writes Istraga.ba.

"Because in the procedure for nominating the President and Vice-Presidents of the Federation of BiH, the final decisions of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were made based on the provisions of Article IV.B.2 of the FBiH Constitution and Articles 9.13-9.15 of the Election Law, prevented the appellants as delegates in the House of Peoples of FBiH from proposing candidates for the President and Vice-Presidents of the Federation of BiH from the group of others, and prevented the second appellant, as a member of the group of others, from being a candidate for the President and Vice-Presidents of the Federation of BiH," the Court's decision, made on January 23 of this year, states.

The Article of the FBiH Constitution in question refers to the election of the (Vice)President of FBiH, i.e., the nomination of candidates in each ethnic club of the House of Peoples of FBiH. The FBiH Constitution allows Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks to nominate the (Vice)President of FBiH, while others, who also have delegates in the House of Peoples, cannot.

Others do not have a Club within the House of Peoples. They participate in the work of the House of Peoples of FBiH and in voting, but they cannot have the President or Vice-President of FBiH.

The provision defining the election of the (Vice)President of FBiH in the BiH Election Law, which follows the FBiH Constitution in the part we mentioned, has also been declared discriminatory.

There has been no reaction from the High Representative.