The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina held today its 153rd Grand Chamber session.
Out of the decisions adopted today, the following are singled out:
AP-37/21 – The Constitutional Court held that there was a violation of the appellant's right to reputation, as part of the right to a private life. The violation was found as due to the impugned statements given by the appellant, he was characterized as being someone who wants to destroy the Republika Srpska. In fact, he was characterised as being someone who, at the behest of foreign commanders and false NGO, has incited riots. The violation was found as the given statements were not examined in the context of the circumstances prevailing in the environment where the appellant resides and works and the reasons were not given as to whether the statements were substantiated by the facts.
AP-97/21 - The Constitutional Court held that there was no violation of the right to prohibition of discrimination with regard to the enjoyment of the right to salary compensation during temporary incapacity for work prescribed by the Law on Health Insurance. There was no violation found as the appellant who performs the professional activity as a lawyer independently, is not in an analogous or relevantly similar situation as a person who is in employment.
AP-106/21 - The Constitutional Court held that there was a violation of the appellant's right to property as the public authority refused to value the period when he was employed by the public authority when calculating the amount of the appellant's pensions even though for that period the contributions were not paid. The violation was found as the public authority had acted contrary to the principle of good management. The public authority had also failed to pay the contributions in favour of the appellant as his employer. Moreover, the public authority had failed to correct the error in the supervision procedure over the calculation and payment of contributions. In fact, the entire burden of the State's error had been placed on the appellant.
AP 479/21 - The Constitutional Court held that there was a violation of the appellant's right to an impartial tribunal as one of the guarantees of the right to a fair trial. The violation was found as the ordinary courts had failed to give sufficient reasons for the disputed decision in order to rule out objective doubt about the existence of the judge's bias.
In addition, at this session, the Constitutional Court again adopted a certain number of decisions in which it established a violation of the right to a fair trial within a reasonable time. In this regard, the decision in the case AP-284/21 was given as an example. In this decision, the Constitutional Court concluded that there was a violation of the appellant's right to a trial within a reasonable time. The violation was found as the proceedings on the issue of the admissibility of the request for adopting a decision replacing the contract for use of the disputed apartment, had taken a total of over 20 years before administrative bodies and courts. At the same time, the administrative authorities or the courts failed to state that there were any special circumstances justifying the length of the proceeding.
All decisions adopted at today's session will be delivered to the appellants within one month. The decisions will be published as soon as possible at the website of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
