FOURTH SECTION
CASE OF REBAC v. BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
(Application no. 31832/20)
 
 
 
 
JUDGMENT
 
STRASBOURG
26 March 2024
 
 
 
 
 
 
This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Rebac v. Bosnia and Herzegovina,
The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:
 Anja Seibert-Fohr, President,
 Faris Vehabović,
 Sebastian Răduleţu, judges,
and Valentin Nicolescu, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application (no. 31832/20) against Bosnia and Herzegovina lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) on 26 June 2020 by a national of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, Mr Marin Rebac, born in 1962 and living in Derventa (“the applicant”) who was represented by Mr D. Dabić, a lawyer practising in Orašje;
the decision to give notice of the complaint concerning the right to adversarial proceedings before the Constitutional Court to the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina (“the Government”), represented by their Acting Agent, Ms J. Cvijetić, and to declare inadmissible the remainder of the application;
the Government’s observations;
Having deliberated in private on 5 March 2024,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
1. The applicant complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the fairness of Constitutional Court proceedings, because the Constitutional Court had not allowed him an opportunity to comment on observations filed by other participants in the proceedings. 2. The impugned Constitutional Court proceedings concerned the right to liberty, the right to respect for the applicant’s private life and correspondence and the right not to be ill-treated. In accordance with Rule 23 of the Rules of the Constitutional Court, the Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office of the Posavina Canton and the Orašje Municipal Court submitted their observations. Since this was not envisaged by its Rules at that time, the Constitutional Court did not transmit them to the applicant. On 20 May 2020 it dismissed the case. With a view to harmonising its procedure with the case-law of this Court, in 2021 the Constitutional Court decided to start transmitting all observations to the appellants for comments.

Outcome for Article 6: violation