“Other” Bosnians want to stop being that

Apparently, nothing is different Darvo Sejdic and Jakob the Finns from most of his compatriots from Bosnia and Herzegovina. They all speak the language of the land perfectly and their ancestors lie buried in this land. Nor do their clothes separate them from their neighbors. However, neither is a full citizen in a country that is still struggling to heal the deep wounds and trauma caused by the bloody civil war of the 1990s. In a nation with minorities, the Constitution, drafted almost a quarter of a century ago by Western scholars, vaguely defines most minority ethnic groups as “others” and denies them rights.

“The constitution makes it impossible for the president to be a Roma. This is unacceptable discrimination in a democracy,” says Dervo Sejdić, a prominent community leader. Roma —or gypsies—, made up of more than 70,000 people who suffer the ravages of deep-rooted racism. According to the Magna Carta, contained in the Dayton Agreement, the Presidency of the country is a collegial institution consisting of a Serbian, Croatian and Muslim representative, who rotate every eight months. And the same applies to many other functions, including, for example, the president of the football association. Even regular positions are informally assigned in this way.

Like ROMthe Jewish community Bosnia, or tens of thousands children of mixed marriages who do not want to identify ethnically have no place in this system. A good number of Bosnian Jews are descendants of Sephardim expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, like the young Jakob Finci. “I hope that the Constitution will be changed soon. And maybe I’m running for president. Didn’t Joe Biden become the president of the USA?” comments this community leader who still remembers Ladin, the medieval Spanish Sephardic, with an ironic smile.

historical judgment

“On several occasions, I presented my complaints to the parties, but they did not pay attention. So I decided to file a lawsuit European court for human rights (ECHR)”, explains Sejdić, a middle-aged man with a friendly appearance. The ECtHR combined the claims of Sejdić and Finci into one case, known as Sejdić and Finns vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina. In a historic ruling, the ECtHR ruled in their favor in 2009 and confirmed that the Constitution is discriminatory against “other” Bosnians, which is why it called on the authorities to amend it. However, more than a decade later, the basic law remains intact due to the lack of will of the nationalist leaders of the three dominant ethnic groups. And that despite pressure from the European Union, which came to reduce aid to Bosnia in order to force a change.

Legal recognition is especially important for the community ROM, the largest of the minorities included in the “other” category. Holding high positions in political institutions would be a very useful tool to combat social stigma that has been rooted for centuries. “The stereotype is that we are thieves or beggars, but there are many of them ROM with good jobs. We have doctors, architects, etc. Unfortunately, many of them hide their origins for fear of being marginalized. There is a lack of positive examples”, laments Sejdić, who chairs the Roma Advisory Council.

This activist condemns that, informally, even public administration jobs are allocated based on ethnic quotas that discriminate against his minority. According to the Regional Roma Survey, only 26% of ROM Bosnians have jobs, and 80% of children live below the poverty line. Unlike other European countries, there are generally no attacks on them, but derogatory or hate speech is normal, both on social networks and in the media.