European Court of Human Rights orders change in electoral law

Society for Threatened Peoples welcomes the first step in abolishing the apartheid system (established in Dayton) in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the European Court of Human Rights.

Thanks to the representatives of the Jewish and Roma minorities, Jacob Finci and Dervo Sejdic, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has ordered a change in the electoral system in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus a first step has now been taken to abolishing the apartheid system (established in Dayton in 1995) in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Instead of making sure that over two million refugees and people expelled could return to all parts of the country after genocide and mass expulsion, the United States and the European Community knowingly cemented the partition of Bosnia by the creation of two quasi-independent states. At the same time the smaller ethnic minorities of the Roma, the Jews and Others were prevented from standing for the federal parliament and the Executive Committee. At the same time the few non-Serb persons returning to the "Republika Srpska” are no more allowed to vote for their own candidates to the federal parliament than the Serb population of the second partial state, the "Bosnian Croatian Federation”. So the constant charges of blame laid at Bosnia’s door in the light of the partition and ethnic apartheid, which were forced on them from outside, are not at all convincing.

The Society for Threatened Peoples International STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) calls therefore for the rigorous abolition of the Bosnian system of apartheid:

- Members of all ethnic and religious communities must have the right to stand for the federal parliament and the Executive Committee.

- The European Union and the United States must make sure that the refugees and people expelled are able to return - even against the will of both partial states and they must guarantee freedom of movement and equal opportunity for all citizens in all parts of the country.

- The factual partitioning of Bosnia and Herzegovina must be replaced by a genuine federative system.

For the Society for Threatened Peoples International, Tilman Zülch,

President.

Note: The Society for Threatened Peoples is represented in Bosnia and Herzegovina with its own section and two offices in the capital of Sarajevo and in Srebrenica. There are on its board and advisory council members of all ethnic and religious communities, of the minorities and of the victims’ associations.

Tilman Zülch will be glad to answer questions at tel politik@gfbv.de