Slaven Kovačević

Slaven Kovačević is a Bosnian-Herzegovinian political scientist and a politician who gained wider publicity for suing Bosnia and Herzegovina to the European Court of Human Rights, in a case Kovačević v. Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the court ruled that the electoral system of Bosnia and Herzegovina did not discriminate against him. The electoral system of Bosnia and Herzegovina stipulates a tripartite Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where a Bosniak and a Croat member are elected from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In contrast, a Serb is elected from the Republika Srpska. Kovačević, who presented himself to the court as not being a member of any of the constituent nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was unable to vote for a candidate of his choice because his candidate was neither a member of any of the constituent nations nor from his entity. The Court found that Kovačević falsely presented himself as not belonging to any of the constituent nations, even though he had previously identified as a Croat.

Slaven Kovačević was born on 3 March 1972 in Sarajevo. He began his political career as a member of the Sarajevo Municipal Centre Council from 2004 to 2016, serving as presiding member from 2010 to 2012 and vice president from 2014 to 2016.

In 2015, Kovačević was employed as a teacher in the Sarajevo Second Gymnasium. He received a PhD in political science at the University of Sarajevo in 2016, and became a professor there in 2019. Since 2018, Kovačević has been advisor to the Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Željko Komšić.

In 2022, Kovačević filed a suit to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that he was discriminated by the Bosnia and Herzegovina's electoral system, since he, as not being a member of any of the constituent nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was unable to vote for a candidate who also wasn't a member of any of the constituent nations or a candidate that was not from his political entity. The court ruled that the electoral system of Bosnia and Herzegovina did not discriminate against him, and that he misused his right to file the suit to challenge the country's constitution rather than to protect his personal rights. During the proceedings, it was also established that he falsely presented himself as not being a member of any of the constituent nations, but that he previously identified as a Croat.^[1]