These are just some of the topics that dominated the session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York: the pandemic, climate change, the green agenda. Last night, the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Zeljko Komsic, also addressed the members. After his speechabout the mentioned topics, he came to the most difficult one: the political situation in BiH, but also every other kind, and he had something to say.
”The basic human rights of citizens in BiH have been shaken. They are applied selectively. Ethnic policies are strengthened and based on exclusivity and ethnic-chauvinist tendencies. Imaginary collective rights have completely supplanted individual ones. That the story is even more complicated is shown by the fact that they are trying to impose on us, even through diplomatic activities on the international scene, the existence of discrimination and inequality of citizens of BiH, ” noted Komsic.
”Through diplomatic acts, especially from neighboring countries, additional discrimination on ethnic grounds is required in order to create conditions within those ethnic communities for the process of self-determination with the ultimate goal of dissolution or disintegration of BiH and annexation of parts of its territories to neighboring countries, ” Komsic stressed.
These factors negate the verdicts of the Hague Tribunal, which determined genocide, joint criminal enterprise (JCE), and ethnic cleansing. And it doesn’t stop there. War criminals are glorified and awarded. Komsic wondered how then these factors could be part of the international legal order at all. He emphasized the importance of the UN mechanism through the institution of the High Representative (HR), thus committing themselves to protect the international order and the Declaration of Human Rights.
”I think that this is the right place to emphasize that the HR of the international community in BiH will take into account the need to protect international legal acts and their fundamental values because it is one of his most important tasks. That is, if the international community itself in BiH wants to abandon the implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, then the question rightly arises as to whether the Universal Declaration is necessary at all if its implementation is selective?”told Komsic.
As an argument for systemic discrimination in terms of human rights, Komsic recalled the five judgments of the Strasbourg Court, which unequivocally showed that not every citizen is equally equal in every inch of BiH. He also mentioned that BiH is hampered by a complex Dayton-based system that makes it difficult to reach a political consensus that would lead thiscountry towards the European Union (EU) and NATO.
Komsic did not refer to the statements of his colleague from the Presidency, Milorad Dodik, who said that he does not speak at the UN on behalf of BiH, because only in front of world leaders would the severe political crisis in this country be exposed to itscore.