European Court of Human Rights rules Jews and Roma should be enfranchised in Bosnia-Herzogovina

STRASBOURG, France (WJC)–The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has ruled that the constitution of Bosnia-Herzegovina discriminates against the Jewish and Roma minorities in the Balkan country and must be changed.

The court ruled on Tuesday in favor of the two plaintiffs, the president of the Jewish Community, Jakob Finci, and Roma leader Dervo Sejdic. Both men complained that their bids to run for the presidency and the upper house of Parliament had been rejected because they were not members of the ethnic groups defined in the constitution: Muslims, Croats or Serbs.

The court’s decision obliges Bosnia to reform its constitution, which was part of the 1995 Dayton peace accord that ended the ethnic war among the three groups in the early 1990s. The basic law was aimed at ensuring sharing among what it calls Bosnia’s constituent peoples. 

Finci said he was “delighted that the European Court has recognized the wrong that was done in the Constitution 14 years ago.” He urged politicians “to right the wrongs in the Constitution quickly.”

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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress