The Irish presidency of the European security body OSCE has urged Bosnia to end discrimination against its Roma and Jewish minorities, whose members cannot run for high elected office.
"There is no excuse to discriminate against anyone, especially minorities," visiting Irish European Affairs Minister Lucinda Creighton, whose country chairs the Organisation for Security in Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) this year, said in a statement.
"This is especially important in a post-conflict society," she said in a reference to Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.
"We in Ireland know very well how difficult it is to build trust between communities but we have also seen the tangible economic and social benefits that overcoming those divisions can bring," she added.
Bosnia's constitution makes a distinction between two categories of citizens: "constituent peoples" -- Bosniaks (Muslims), Croats and Serbs -- and "others" -- Jews, Roma and other minorities.
Posts in the Bosnian parliament and its tripartite presidency are reserved for the three so-called constituent nations under the rules which were intended to prevent ethnic strife in the aftermath of the war.
In 2009, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Bosnia for barring Jews and Romas from running for high elected office. The Strasbourg-based tribunal ruled that the Balkan country was violating provisions of the convention prohibiting discrimination and upheld the right to free elections.
The court ruled in a suit filed in 2006 by two prominent Bosnian public figures, Dervo Sejdic of Roma origin and Jewish Jakob Finci, who claimed discrimination and a breach of their human rights.
Creighton discussed the issue with Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija and chairman of the country's tripartite presidency Bakir Izetbegovic.
A reform of the constitution is one of the main conditions for Bosnia to obtain European Union candidacy status.
In June, the EU gave Bosnia a new deadline to resolve the issue and amend its constitution by the end of November.

EJP