Seite - 250 - in Austrian Law Journal, Band 2/2015

ISSN: 2409-6911 (CC-BY) 3.0 license www.austrian-law-journal.at Fundstelle: Grewe, Diversity: Beyond Recognition in Bosnia and Refusal in France, ALJ 2/2015, 250–257 (http://alj.uni-graz.at/index.php/alj/article/view/46). Diversity: Beyond Recognition in Bosnia and Refusal in France Constance Grewe*, Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina Abstract: Diversity is a condition necessary for the building of a pluralist democratic society if it is perceived as a source of enrichment. But when its recognition proves to be partial and there- fore excluding some categories of individuals from the participation in public life, diversity ap- pears to be rather a threat than enrichment. The very opposite examples of Bosnia and Herze- govina on the one side and of France on the other side are chosen as illustration. In Bosnia and Herzegovina the constitutional recognition of the constituent peoples is limited to the three eth- nic groups of Serbs, Croats and Bosniacs excluding the so-called ‘Others’ namely from the House of Peoples and the Presidency. In France, the traditional ignorance of diversity and the concept of universal citizenship have prevented the acknowledgment of minorities and regional or mi- nority languages. The admitted diversity being limited, it is difficult for both countries to con- ceive diversity as enrichment and to accede to a true pluralist society. Bosnia’s non- implementation of the ECtHR’s judgment Sejdić and Finci as well as the continuous controversies about religious signs in France and the difficulty to enforce a real equality between men and women exemplify this statement. Keywords: Ethnicity; pluralism; minority rights; equality; constituent peoples. I. Introduction ‘A society in which diversity is not perceived as a threat but as a source of enrichment’ – this is how the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the Sejdić and Finci case1 formulates the aim in matters of democracy. It seems that still this goal is rather far from being reached. Yet nowadays diversity is everywhere. Not only is it the characteristic of the European Integration but it is also prevailing within the states. Whatever might be the criterion – linguistic, religious, social, economic, cultural or ethnic –, no population proves to be homogeneous. Nevertheless or, conversely, for that reason, the constitutional regulations or their interpretation seem to con- ceive diversity more as a threat than as enrichment. The classic models are quite opposite in this respect as illustrated namely by Joseph Marko.2 The German model of the ‘nation state’ recognizes * Constance Grewe is Prof. em. of the University of Strasbourg (France) and Judge at the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This article is based on a lecture held by the author on the symposium “Meeting the challenges of Diversity” for the 60th birthday of Joseph Marko in Graz on 8. 4. 2015. 1 ECtHR 22. 12. 2009 (GC), 27996/06 and 34836/06 point 43. 2 Marko, Ethnopolitics. The Challenge for Human and Minority Rights Protection, in Corradetti (ed), Philosophical Dimensions of Human Rights. Some Contemporary Views (2012) 265 (266 et seqq).