Reform of the FBiH must bring equality for the “Others”

Coalition against the constitutional discrimination “Equality”, as part of its activities on the promotion of the constitutional changes that would eliminate the constitutional discrimination, began a series of meetings with all relevant local and international officials.

One of the first meetings, in the series, is the expert group meeting with the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had been tasked by the Ambassador Patrick Moon to work on the preparation of proposals for the reform of the Federation.

As has been previously known, an expert group consists of the first president of Federation Krešimir Zubak, who is now engaged with lawyers in practice, university professors Mile Lasić, Kasim Trnka and Mirjana Nadaždin-Defterdarević and former member of the Central Election Commission and civil activists Vehid Šehić.

Representatives of the coalition “Equality” agreed with the expert group that the reform the Federation must be guided by the principles of efficiency, functionality and cost savings, and they also introduced minimum requirements which the Coalition advocating:

– Constitutional changes in the Federation of BiH must bring equal rights for all citizens of the Federation of BiH, specially for those who do not identify themselves as members of constituent peoples;

– Any reform of ethnic rights in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina must not introduce new discriminatory measures or omit the principle of equality for “Others”;

– The reform of the constitution and the law at all levels should lead to reduction and clear definition of collective rights and to strengthen the rights of the individuals in the context of the European Convention on Human Rights and Civil Liberties

–  Reform of the Constitution of the Federation of the BiH, and all those laws which in themselves have elements of discrimination based on ethnicity is necessary

– Reform of the constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has to deal with the reform of the cantonal constitutions, and local self-governing, to achieve on all those levels substantive equality and full equal rights of all citizens of Federation of BiH who don’t identify themselves as members of constituent people;

– All future changes must be fully applied in practice on a non-discriminatory manner.