Freedom of Expression in Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2008: Legal Provisions, Practice and International Human Rights Standards in the Bosnia and Herzegovina with Public Opinion Survey

Abstract

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is a gap between rights recognized by obligatory international and regional instruments and defined in national constitutional and legislative framework, and the way they are implemented and respected in practice. Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina provides primacy of collective rights – rights of constituent peoples (Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs) over collective rights even though the European Convention on Human Rights has supremacy over all other law in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This in large scale leads to negative estimation of condition of human rights protection of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the country that wants to be member to European Union its citizens who do not declare themselves as members of one of the three constituent peoples still have certain political rights denied. This brought Bosniam and Herzegovina before the European Court of Human Rights to which discriminated citizens appealed. State is additionally complex by administrative-territorial organization of the state (state, entities, Brcko District, cantons/counties, municipalities). This paper looks at the protection of freedom of expression and in particular how this right relates to the legal system in Bosnia and Herzegovina.