The judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Kovačević case is important because it opens up the necessity of completing the constitutional transition for Bosnia and Herzegovina, said Jens Woelk, professor of comparative constitutional law at the University of Temo, Italy.
He said this at a press conference held via video link ahead of his guest appearance as the keynote speaker at today’s session of the Independent Association of Intellectuals Krug 99 in Sarajevo on the topic “After the European Court’s verdict in the Kovačević case: Is constitutional reform necessary, but also impossible?”.
Woelk said that the main thing that comes out of the ‘Kovačević’ verdict is equal rights for everyone in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the direction the country should go if it wants to be a European society.
“The judgment clearly states that the most important thing is the political representation of citizens. Now there is a difference between constituents and minorities; so we have to think about constitutional changes on the scale of Bosnia and Herzegovina, because the current constitution does not contain any chance for BiH to become a family of European countries since it does not have the level of democratic rights necessary for Europe,” said Woelk.
Whether the constitutional changes are made through amendments or by drafting a new constitution, citizens must be involved, whose role must be decisive, prof. Ph.D. Jens Woelk, who otherwise emphasizes the great importance of respecting the ‘Kovačević’ verdict and other decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, because this would also mean consistent respect for the European Convention.
Answering a journalist’s question, he emphasizes that the foreign judges in the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina are a kind of guarantee of everything written in documents and agreements that Bosnia and Herzegovina is obliged to respect. Only when the goals from the constitution and other documents are achieved, foreign judges can leave, said Woelk, Fena reports.
