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issued by the Registrar of the Court ECHR 156 (2025) 25.06.2025 Forthcoming delivery of the operative provisions in the Grand Chamber case Kovacevi v. Bosnia and Herzegovina The European Court of Human Rights will deliver the operative provisions (conclusions) of its ruling in the case of Kovacevi v. Bosnia and Herzegovina (application no. 43651/22) at 6.00 p.m. (CET) today (25 June 2025) at a public hearing in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg. The delivery will be broadcast live on the European Court's YouTube channel. The complete text of the Grand Chamber's ruling will be published at a later stage. The parties and the public will be informed of the date of publication in due course. The case concerns the applicant's allegation that the requirements applicable to elections for the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly and for the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina are discriminatory against him and prevented him from voting for candidates of his choice in those elections in 2022. A recording of the delivery will be available tomorrow on the Court's internet site (www.echr.coe.int). The applicant, Slaven Kovacevi, is a national of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, who was born in 1972. He is a political scientist and adviser to a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnian Constitution has its origins in the 1995 General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Dayton Agreement) signed at the end of the 1992-1995 war. Since then, Bosnia and Herzegovina has been composed of two Entities � the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Federation) and the Republika Srpska � plus the Brcko District which belongs to both. Mr Kovacevi lives in Sarajevo which is situated in the Federation. The Constitution makes a distinction between different categories of the population: the "constituent peoples" (Bosniacs, Croats and Serbs) and "Others and citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina" (members of ethnic minorities and those who do not declare affiliation with any particular ethnic group). No objective criteria such as language or religion are required to determine one's ethnicity; people decide for themselves. The Constitution sets out power-sharing arrangements between the "constituent peoples". For instance, the second chamber of the State Parliament, the House of Peoples, is composed of five Bosniacs and five Croats from the Federation and five Serbs from the Republika Srpska. The Presidency comprises three members: one Bosniac and one Croat from the Federation and one Serb from the Republika Srpska. Only persons declaring affiliation with one of the three "constituent peoples" are thus entitled to run for the House of Peoples and the Presidency. Moreover, only the voters residing in the Republika Srpska may participate in the selection or election of Serb members of the House of Peoples (indirectly) and the Presidency (through direct elections), whereas only the voters residing in the Federation may participate in the selection or election of Bosniac and Croat members of those State bodies (indirectly in respect of the members of the House of Peoples, and directly for the Presidency). In contrast, no ethnic requirements apply in elections to the House of Representatives (the first chamber of the State Parliament). Procedure The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 30 August 2022. Relying on Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights taken in conjunction with Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 (right to free elections) and on Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 (general prohibition of discrimination), the applicant complained that he was discriminated against because of the territorial and ethnic requirements applicable to elections for the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly and the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which prevented him from voting for the candidates of his choice in the latest legislative and presidential elections of October 2022. He also raised other complaints under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 taken alone and/or in conjunction with Article 14, and under Articles 13 (right to an effective remedy) and 17 (prohibition of abuse of rights). In its judgment of 29 August 2023, the Court held, by a majority of six votes to one, that there had been violations of Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 (general prohibition of discrimination) to the European Convention in respect of Mr Kovacevi's not being genuinely represented in the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Court also held, by a majority of six votes to one, that there was no need to examine either the admissibility or the merits of the applicant's complaint about the composition of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina under Article 14 of the Convention taken in conjunction with Article 3 of Protocol No. 1. The remainder of the applicant's complaints were declared inadmissible, unanimously. On 14 December 2023 the case was referred to the Grand Chamber at the request of the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Government of Croatia and the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina were granted leave to intervene in the written and oral proceedings as third parties in conformity with, respectively, Article 36 � 1 of the Convention and Rule 44 � 1 of the Rules of Court and Article 36 � 2 of the Convention and Rule 44 � 3 of the Rules of Court. A public hearing in the case was held on 20 November 2024. This press release is a document produced by the Registry. It does not bind the Court. Decisions, judgments and further information about the Court can be found on www.echr.coe.int. To receive the Court's press releases, please subscribe here: www.echr.coe.int/RSS/en or follow us on X (Twitter) @ECHR_CEDH. Press contacts [email protected] | tel: +33 3 90 21 42 08 We are happy to receive journalists' enquiries via either email or telephone. Jane Swift (tel: + 33 3 88 41 29 04) Tracey Turner-Tretz (tel: + 33 3 88 41 35 30) Denis Lambert (tel: + 33 3 90 21 41 09) Inci Ertekin (tel: + 33 3 90 21 55 30) Neil Connolly (tel: + 33 3 90 21 48 05) The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. 2