A Neglected Right

The right to be elected, although an important political right guaranteed in human rights documents on international and regional levels, is still an under-researched and undertheorized concept with many synonyms in use. While the right to vote is often correlated with democracy, the closely related right to be elected is often neglected, and the constitutions of most countries are silent about it.

The 2009 European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decision in the case of Sejdic and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina started the discussions concerning the discrimination in enjoyment of the right to be elected in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although the right to be elected is not explicitly guaranteed in the Dayton Constitution but only in the Law on Election, the ECHR considered equal enjoyment of this right by everyone in Bosnia and Herzegovina of high importance and declared the relevant Dayton Constitution’s provisions discriminatory.

The book explains the conceptual relevance of the right to be elected, its interrelatedness with the right to vote and both these rights’ significance for democratic systems. Through analyzing and explaining the regional human rights tribunal’s decisions concerning the right to be elected, the importance of this political right is elucidated.