Groups of cases

The case law of the BiH Constitutional Court and the Human Rights Chamber, including the Human Rights Commission within the BiH Constitutional Court, which deals with the issue of the process of return of refugees and displaced persons, incorporates, in principle, property-related disputes in relation to restitution (restoration) or compensation for property damage (ownership or other forms of property rights) which had been destroyed during the war. Thereby, the process of privatisation of the so-called social (i.e., state-owned) property into private property had a certain role. A significant part of the case law relates to disputes on the re-reinstatement of cultural and spiritual legacy, as well as to the impossibility to use them. Further, this group includes cases concerning the reinstatement of employment and the payment of pensions.

Discrimination on the ground of ethnic affiliation was very often present, as an inevitable thread accompanying all these groups of cases. For that matter, refugees and displaced persons constantly met with the resistance of incompetent or hostile administrative authorities and courts, so that a large number of cases involved problems related also to the right to a fair trial.

In its case law, both courts, the BiH Constitutional Court and the Human Rights Chamber, relied, mainly, on the property right, the right to inviolability of home, freedom of religion, various procedural guarantees or prohibition of discrimination. The BiH Constitutional Court may, additionally, rely on the right to return (Article II.5 of the Constitution of BiH), as a specific constitutional right of protection. Finally, also Annex 7 to the Dayton Peace Agreement had a certain role in providing arguments for decisions of the BiH Constitutional Court. In essence, one may distinguish between the following groups of cases: