Concurring and dissenting opinion of Judge Mijović, joined by Judge Hajiyev, in the case of Sejdić and Finci, Nos. 27996/06, 34836/06, ECtHR (Grand Chamber), 22 December 2009

Impossibility for Bosnian Roma and Jewish citizens to run for certain institutional positions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Art. 14 ECHR
Art. 3 Prot. 1 CEDU
Art. 1 Prot. 12 CEDU
 

1. The impossibility for some citizens of a State to access the high offices of the State, only for their ethnicity, constitutes a violation of the general prohibition of discrimination provided for in art. 1 Prot. 12 ECHR.

2. However, art. 3 of Prot. 1 ECHR protects the right to free elections in general and there is no consolidated jurisprudence on this point if the right to active and passive electorate also falls within it. For this reason the limitation to the passive electorate in an upper house of the Parliamentary Assembly does not necessarily translate into a violation of art. 14 of the ECHR in conjunction with art. 3 Prot. 1 ECHR.