Ethnic parity within institutions is an exception

If there are special rights for representation and participation of the constituent peoples, applicable to the procedures of election and appointment to the positions in some State institutions, then these special rights in no way may be applied also for other institutions or procedures. On the contrary, these special collective rights have to be narrowly construed because of a possible collision with non-discrimination. In particular, the Constitutional Court has further established that it cannot be concluded that the Constitution of BiH provides for a general institutional model, which could be transferred to the Entity level, or that similar, ethnically-defined institutional structures on an Entity level need not meet the overall binding standard of non-discrimination in accordance with Article II.4 of the Constitution of BiH or the constitutional principle of collective equality of constituent peoples.²¹⁷

The constituent peoples, indeed, enjoy the collective rights to be represented and to take part in State institutions. However, the relevant provisions cannot be deemed to be a general model of ethnic representation, which could then lead to a territorial division of the constituent peoples on the level of an Entity by the force of the BiH Constitution.²¹⁸