While acknowledging some progress on Roma issues and emerging potential for moving towards integrated schools, the Council of Europe’s Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities concludes in its new opinion that national minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina do not enjoy effective access to their rights.
Examining the progress made and providing recommendations on the basis of information submitted by the authorities and last year’s visit, the Committee says that in the country deeply divided among the three constituent peoples(*), national minorities are institutionally discriminated against and unable to fully participate in political processes.
Despite a European Court of Human Rights ruling, the right of the so-called “Others”(**) to be elected and hold high public offices continues to be restricted due to a lack of political will to amend constitutional and legal provisions.
(*) Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs
(**) All other ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina
