Legal expert Ognjen Tadić stated that by rejecting the appeals of President Milorad Dodik, the members of the incomplete Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina missed an important opportunity to return to themselves — meaning to the state and the Constitution they are obliged to uphold — and that the legal battle will now continue on the international level before the European Court of Human Rights.
“When a constitutional court in any country refuses to protect constitutionally guaranteed human rights and freedoms from a foreigner who undermines them — a person without any legal mandate who has imposed laws under which citizens are criminally punished for disobedience — it becomes clear that such a court is acting unconstitutionally and destroying all principles of the rule of law,” Tadić said.
He added that the situation is even worse when punishment is imposed on a democratically elected president of a republic for respecting the Constitution rather than obeying an illegitimate foreigner.
“It is entirely clear that the Constitutional Court of BiH is ripe for reform — one that would finally make it what the BiH Constitution defines it to be: an institution that defends the Constitution of BiH, rather than serving as a fig leaf for Christian Schmidt and a tool of those undermining the Dayton Peace Agreement,” Tadić told Srna.
He emphasized that this case will now proceed before the European Court of Human Rights, marking the full internationalization of the issue of Christian Schmidt’s unlawful usurpation of the high representative’s authority, as well as the broader violations of human and civil rights in BiH committed by foreign actors.
The incomplete Constitutional Court of BiH has rejected the appeal filed by President Milorad Dodik’s defense against the verdict of the Court of BiH and the decision of the Central Election Commission.
Source: RTRS
