Constituency of peoples in the constitutional system of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Chasing fair solutions

Abstract

The constituency of peoples as a collective political right of ethnic communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats) was provided as a constitutional category by the Washington and Dayton Peace Agreements. On the one hand, institutional guarantees for equal status of ethnic groups, which make the essence of constituency, can indeed help to decrease the insecurity and tensions among them and secure the removal of obstacles during the distribution of political power. On the other hand, it is difficult to foresee the consequences of institutionalized ethnic equality on the individual equality of the members of the different groups. In that sense, there is a real risk of identification of the collective ethnic identity with individual identity, and limitation of individual rights to collective political rights of ethnic groups, which is the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina in post-Dayton period. By its decision in the Sejdic-Finci case, the European Court of Human Rights confirmed that Bosnia and Herzegovina, taking into account all its specificity, should find a “lucky” combination of civil and ethnic constitutional model.