Finci buying us drinkies makes Bosnia thinky
Breaking news from the European Court. Dervo Sejdic, who is of Roma heritage, and Jakob Finci, of Bosnian Jewish heritage, claimed that the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina had a constitution that discriminated against them. Why? Cuz the constitution says that Jews and Romas cannot hold high government positions. I guess it took the court weeks and months to figure whether this is discrimination.
You see, Finci wanted to run for Parliament, but the Central Election Commission said that he was ineligible to stand in such elections because of his Jewish origin. The Dayton Peace accord separated Bosnia into two entities: the Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska and the Muslim and Croat-led Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The constitution makes a distinction between two categories of citizens. The “constituent peoples” are Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs, while “others” include Jews, Roma and other minorities. Posts in the Bosnian parliament and its three-MAN presidency are reserved for constituent peoples. It is intended to prevent ethnic strife (since neither Jews, Romas or others would mind, or are expected to initiate strife)
The court has ordered the government to pay Finci 20,000 Euros. Finci, currently the Bosnian ambassador to Switzerland, might spend it all on chocolate and new ski equipment.
