The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina held its 148th plenary session today, where it considered requests for constitutionality assessment and appeals, and considered and decided on other issues of importance to the Constitutional Court.
The Constitutional Court considered the requests of Denis Zvizdić, the first deputy speaker of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH and four delegates of the House of Peoples of the PSBiH for the review of the constitutionality of the Election Law of the Republic of Srpska (“Official Gazette of the RS” number 61/24).
In the decision, it was determined that the challenged law is not in accordance with the Constitution of BiH and the Electoral Law of BiH because the contested law takes over the competences of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
– The Constitutional Court concluded that there are no provisions in the Constitution of BiH on the basis of which the constitutionality of the disputed law passed by the National Assembly of the RS could be established. In addition, the Constitutional Court reminded that the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina represents a “decision of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, as well as that the entities are obliged to respect those decisions under the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, the contested law has been repealed in its entirety, and the temporary measure that was adopted on July 24, 2024 has ceased to be valid – it is stated in the statement of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In case AP-509/21 (Sanjin Sefić), the Constitutional Court concluded that the appellant’s right to a fair trial, the right to an effective legal remedy and the right to appeal were not violated in the proceedings that ended with the challenged judgment of the Supreme Court of the Federation of BiH.
The Constitutional Court found that the appellant enjoyed all the guarantees of the right to a fair trial and that the regular courts gave relevant and sufficient explanations for their conclusions, which do not call into question the fairness of the proceedings.
Also, looking at the criminal proceedings in their entirety, the Constitutional Court concluded that the media attention that was devoted to the disputed event did not have any influence on the final decision of the courts regarding the appellant’s guilt.
In case AP-1117/22 (Z. J.), the Constitutional Court concluded that the District Court in East Sarajevo and competent administrative authorities violated the appellant’s right to prohibition of discrimination in connection with the right to property when they rejected her request for recognition of a family pension for a deceased common-law spouse partner.
The Constitutional Court recalled that in its practice it had already concluded that the distinction between married and non-marital spouses in relation to the issue of inheritance has no reasonable and objective justification.
Also, the Constitutional Court pointed out in this case that citizens cannot bear the harmful consequences of the fact that the relevant laws are not harmonized in order to implement the consistent decision of the legislator from the Family Law of the Republic of Srpska on the equalization of married and cohabiting unions in the realization of property rights of cohabiting spouses, including the realization family pension rights.
When it comes to case AP-2312/22 (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina), it was concluded that there was a violation of the appellant’s right to a fair trial, and the challenged judgment of the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annulled and the judgment of the Cantonal Court in Odzak was upheld.
– The Constitutional Court found that the Supreme Court in the specific case did not act according to the Decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH No. AP-3424/20, which established the arbitrariness in the Supreme Court’s earlier explanations on the issue of the retroactive effect of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of FBiH and that it did not eliminate the violation of constitutional rights – statements from the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In case AP-2540/24 (Serbian Democratic Party), the Constitutional Court found that the appellant’s right to freedom of association was violated. Namely, in the specific case, the appellant’s application to participate in the Local Elections of 2024 was rejected due to the impossibility of submitting her own bank account.
The Constitutional Court concluded that in this particular case there are objective reasons for the impossibility of opening an account, namely the economic sanctions imposed on the appellants 20 years ago by the decision of the Office for the Control of Foreign Assets of the US Department of the Treasury – OFAC. The Constitutional Court emphasized, among other things, that the imposed sanctions were economic and political in nature and that they did not result in a ban on participation in the elections, that is, the appellant’s political activities.
It was pointed out that this decision of the Constitutional Court only decides whether the appellant, given the specific circumstances of the specific case and her role on the political scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina, should have been allowed to participate in the elections. At the same time, it was emphasized that the Constitutional Court in this particular case does not decide how the appellant will finance her participation in the elections, nor is it the subject of the specific procedure.
However, the Constitutional Court considers that, in the circumstances of the specific case, the strictly formalistic interpretation and application of the law by the CEC, i.e. the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, should not jeopardize the appellant’s right to participate in the elections, as this would jeopardize her political activity simply because, for objective reasons, she cannot provide the number of her own account, but she provided the number of another account opened on the basis of a commission contract only for the purposes of financing the next elections.
All decisions adopted at the plenary session will be delivered to applicants/appellants within one month and published as soon as possible on the website of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was announced.
