Svetozar Pudarić

Svetozar Pudarić (Sarajevo, 1959 - 2020) was a Bosnian politician.

Biography Born in 1959 in Sarajevo, Pudarić completed his studies in archeology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade in 1983. In 1984, he was employed at the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He worked at the Institute until 1993.

In May 2018 Pudarić submitted his candidacy for the 2018 elections as member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Serb people. The Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina rejected it as Pudarić was resident in the Federation BiH entity, rather than in the Republika Srpska entity, from where the Serb members of the BiH Presidency is elected. Pudarić appealed to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in turn rejected his case.

Pudarić died of cancer in Sarajevo on March 9, 2020.

In December 2020, on the basis of the Sejdić and Finci case law and of the specular case of Ilijaz Pilav, decided in 2016, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg recognised a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights by Bosnia and Herzegovina against Pudarić. The Court also noted that it is not the Constitution of BiH but its electoral law that introduces a requirement of residence for the candidates to the BiH Presidency; the Court noted that "no legal provision of domestic law should be interpreted and applied in a manner incompatible with States’ obligations under the Convention", particularly since the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina grants “priority over all other law” to the European Convention on Human Rights.