The Initiative “Women Citizens for Constitutional Reform” organized the conference on the Tuesday, 22 December 2015 with the aim of updating the issues of constitutional reform. Exactly on that day it will be six years from the non-execution of the Sejdić – Finci case. The fact is that the existing Bh. Constitution cost approximately $ 15 million through the lost verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). And it is not the end, more than 1,000 procedures currently pending against Bosnia. About the issue of (non) constitutional verdict and human rights violations speaks for Radio Free Europe Monika Mijić-BiH representative at the European Court of Human Rights.
RFE: What kind of image BiH sends to Europe and the world, when for the past six years it has not enforced the verdict Sejdić – Finci, or when violates the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms?
Mijić: The fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina violates the European Convention on Human Rights and Freedoms is important for the citizens, for all of us in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but for the international scene. It is quite clear that we are sending bad image to the world and Europe, but – we can live with a poor image and we cannot live with the fact that in Bosnia and Herzegovina there is a systematic and structural violation of human rights, as evidenced by the numerous convictions against Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is that these verdicts reveal structural human rights violations. No individual violations, but the general violations that include a larger number of people.
RFE: The verdict of the European Court in the already famous Sejdić – Finci case is not only that BiH is not implemented. How many more of these there is, and what they mostly relate to?
Mijić: At the moment, there is in the process of execution twenty verdicts against Bosnia and Herzegovina. These verdicts mainly relate to the general, structural problems, such as non-enforcement of domestic court verdicts, the return of military apartments, discriminatory provisions of the Constitution and electoral legislation, inadequate accommodation insane offenders, and the overlapping of criminal and misdemeanor offenses, which may result that someone is sentenced twice for the same offense. All these verdicts are made in relation to specific applicants, therefore, the amount is paid out by the Court to an individual for perceived violation of human rights. However, Bosnia and Herzegovina in relation to the verdict failed to take general measures, such as changing legislation, building the appropriate institutions, enforcement of domestic court verdicts. So these are general measures that states must take to eliminate the violation of the right with respect to all persons affected by the violation.
The full text can be found at: www.slobodnaevropa.org
Women Citizens for Constitutional Reform 