Statement on the reported agreement between SDA and HDZ leaders regarding the implementation of the Sejdic-Finci ruling

SEJDIC-FINCIThe Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB) expresses deep concern about the alleged agreement between president of SDA,  Sulejman Tihic, and president of HDZ, Dragan Covic, regarding the implementation of the judgment in Sejdic-Finci case. This agreement is against the interests of the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its people and citizens and represents further nationalist division of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian electoral landscape and its its social fabric. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina with this agreement would be divided into two electoral entities where political representatives would be directly elected, but these constituencies are applied in a manner to ensure that the Bosnian Croats can choose member for presidency without any impact from Bosniak voters. This so called “solution” only deepens the ethnic division of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is leading to further isolation of Bosniaks in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Let us not forget that the Sjedic-Finci case was taken on by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg as a result of a lawsuit by Dervo Sejdic and Jakob Finci, who as members of national minorities, were prevented from being able to run for the political offices in the Presidency and the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The European Court concluded that the current electoral law discriminates against all citizens who do not belong to one of the three ethnic groups, i.e. Bosniaks, Serbs or Croats. The essence of this judgment is that the Dayton constitutional order categorically discriminates against ethnic minorities in the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in both entities. The verdict was supposed to be a pretext for launching a set of comprehensive constitutional reforms in which Bosnia and Herzegovina would be on the path towards a democratic civil state in which members would be directly elected based on merit, and not their national, ethnic, or religious background.

This agreement represents a deviation from a civil democratic Bosnia and Herzegovina and serves to further divide Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is disastrous for the future of the country.  Moreover, this proposal offers no solution at all for Bosnian citizens who belong to national minorities (i.e. Roma, Jews, etc), but the Sejdic-Finci verdict is  misused to meet ethnic biased and partisan interests, not the interests of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We invite all of Bosnia and Herzegovina patriots, members of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina to reject this agreement and do not accept a compromise on the European future of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a democratic, civil, state and therefore ensuring a brighter future to new generations in Bosnia and Herzegovina who do not want to be victims of ethnic division.