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Debates
CONSTITUTION AND POLITICS IN BOSNIA HERCEGOVINA
In 2009 the Palais hosted a meeting of students and experts on the complex subject of the constitutional situation in Bosnia-Hercegovina – a complicated country comprising two political entities (the Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina and Republika Srpska). Then there is the special status of Brčko District – and of course the fact that the whole construct still derives its constitutional basis from the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement and is administered in a ubiquitous system of ethnic proportionality comprising Bosnians, Croats and Serbs. With his profound knowledge of every detail of the difficult present and the omnipresent past, Professor Joseph Marko, who was the international member of the Constitutional Court, spoke on the terrace of the Palais about this interesting state.
LINKS:
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The website of Professor Joseph Marko gives an overview on Joseph's research interest and former positions. Having held a plethora of international positions in the area, he is considered a Doyen in the field of minority protection in Europe.
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There is a stumbling bloc on Bosnia's way towards EU accession, namely its resistance to implement the European Court of Human Rights' judgement in the case Finci dating already from December 2009. The Jew Jakob Finci and the Roma Dervo Sejdić were excluded from participating in the political elections. The Court considered it as a violation with the European Convention of Human Rights to exclude those persons from political participation who do not explicitly selfdeclare themselves as either "Serb", "Croate" oder "Bosniac".
