Bosnia and Herzegovina guide
After more than a decade of international aid and reconstruction programmes, Bosnia and Herzegovina should be on the brink of taking responsibility for its own political and economic development. The UN however has been forced to postpone its handover to the European Union due to the divisive rhetoric of politicians which impedes the formation of national institutions. The Bosnian people themselves will remain reluctant participants in the democratic process until it aligns with their desperate need for the jobs and opportunities that they see emerging elsewhere in Europe.
updated December 2008
Poverty in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The complex political structure established in the aftermath of the civil war has impeded the delivery of policies to advance the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Furthermore, as the last official census was completed in 1991, there is a lack of reliable statistical data for human development. A further census is not due until 2011.
In light of the chaos of the post-war years, the baseline for the MDGs has been moved from 1990 to 2001 and the government has adopted a poverty line defined as 60% of median income - 19% of the population was below this point in 2001. World Bank data for 2008 reveals that the figure is virtually unchanged at 18%, with a further 30% of the population described as at risk of “an income shock” – which the world economic crisis may now impose. Unemployment has also been adopted as a poverty indicator for MDG purposes with a target of 12% by 2015; however the IMF has quoted a figure of 23% during 2008 and there are concerns that the real figure may be higher still. Over 50% of young people lack formal employment and over 25% of the population lack access to healthcare services.
Whilst absolute numbers attending primary schools are likely to match MDG aspirations, the segregation of schooling by ethnic origin is totally inconsistent with principles applying elsewhere in Europe. Furthermore, prospects for the Roma people, of whom there are about 60,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, are greatly handicapped by the fact that only a small minority of their children attend primary school. The poverty rate amongst the Roma is more than 4 times the national average.
Conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Lacking the cohesive national identity that enabled Slovenia and Croatia to achieve political independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 and 1992 respectively, Bosnia's ethnic coexistence finally curdled after the country's own declaration of independence on April 6th 1992. A bloody civil war ensued, as Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Croats and Muslims (known as Bosniacs) fought one another for control of the land. The Bosnian Serb army and paramilitary groups, allegedly funded by Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian president, were accused of particular atrocities. However, war crimes were committed by all three armies involved in the fighting, including the ethnic cleansing and displacement of people of all cultures from across Bosnia.
Latest estimates suggest that 97,000 civilians of all ethnicities were killed between 1992 and 1995; the Bosniac population suffering the highest casualties. Amnesty International considers that a further 13,000 were never accounted for. Approximately 2.2 million people were forced to move from their homes, becoming displaced either within Bosnia or as international refugees. In addition, resentment against the international community grew through its failure to broker a successful peace agreement, and its reluctance to intervene militarily to protect Bosnian civilians, most infamously for the genocide at Srebrenica that killed 8,000 men and boys in 1995.
Eventually in 1995 the Dayton Peace Agreement was signed, establishing a complex national constitution which successfully ended the fighting but which has failed so far to relax ethnic division. The most significant power for political decision-making currently lies with two semi-autonomous regions known as "entities": the Republika Srpska (RS) which has a Serb majority, and the Bosniac-Croat Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (the Federation) which has a Bosniac/Croat majority. Each "entity" has its own constitution, legal system, prime minister and parliament so that welfare, education and health services differ greatly between the two, all too often favouring one ethnicity's interests over the other.
There is also a national parliament and a Bosnian presidency, with limited powers and convoluted procedures for decision-making. For example, the presidency, responsible primarily for international policy and relations, is a 3-member coalition representing each of the ethnic groups. Decisions cannot be made without the full consensus of all three members - a consensus which is often slow, if not impossible, to reach.
The overall structure is supervised by the Office of the High Representative (OHR), a position of wide-ranging powers akin to a colonial era governor. The current incumbent, Miroslav Lajcak from Slovakia, has authority to sack any public official operating in contradiction to the principles of the Dayton Agreement. The European Union Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUFOR) provides an ongoing international peacekeeping presence across the country, although its numbers are now greatly reduced to around 2,500 troops.
UN willingness to maintain this structure is wearing thin and the OHR is due to be closed in November 2009, more than two years later than intended. A handover to Bosnian control cannot be contemplated without progress towards a less divisive political framework, progress which has been extremely limited in more than a decade since Dayton. There is now an urgent need for Bosnians to amend the constitution to create stronger central government and embrace a multi-ethnic nation.
Politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina
These imperatives were constantly threatened with calamity during 2007, a year which all concerned may prefer to forget. New governments formed in the aftermath of elections held in October 2006 reflected the voters' reluctance to embark on a meaningful shift towards candidates presenting a vision of unification. Essential laws and constitutional reform were gridlocked in a state of intransigence rather than compromise.
Bosniac politicians, led by their representative in the rotating presidency, Haris Silajdzic, favour dismantling the entities in favour of stronger central government - to compromise this vision would be tantamount to conceding the wartime goals of ethnic cleansing. By contrast the Serbs see the retention of RS as defence against the potential voting majority of the Bosniacs. The forceful RS entity prime minister, Milorad Dodik, even cites the recent independence of Kosovo as a template for a referendum on the separation of RS.
Towards the end of 2007 Mr. Lajcak was forced to exercise his powers, amending a voting procedure which was blocking progress. He does not hesitate to invoke European Union (EU) membership as the one vision that unites the country. Although a decade or more away, this prospect drew concessions on the mechanism for creating a unified national police force which in turn led to the crucial signing of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU in June 2008.
The development of national civil society since the war has thus far been dominated by the presence of numerous international NGOs and inter-governmental organisations. However, it is hoped that the progressive withdrawal of the international community will allow domestic "third sector" initiatives to emerge, challenging the current social and political stalemate at local and national levels. A dispiriting UNDP-sponsored grassroots survey published by Oxford Research International in July 2007 found that two-thirds of people aged under 30 would leave the country if given the opportunity. Focus groups revealed widespread disillusionment with the convoluted political system with little interest in participation. It seems clear that politicians are failing to connect with the priorities of their constituents who feel that a more unified society moving towards EU membership would release the economic benefits that they desperately seek.
Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Human rights issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina are dominated by the attempts of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), established in 1993 in The Hague, to establish accountability for the most serious crimes committed during the war. Serbia’s record of cooperation with the ICTY was transformed during 2008 with the capture of Radovan Karadzic, now on trial for genocide and crimes against humanity. At the national level, the Bosnian War Crimes Chamber opened its first trial in May 2006 and has so far conducted about 100 prosecutions of war criminals. A sizeable backlog of cases awaits attention.
A landmark ruling was made in 2007 by a separate court, the International Court of Justice, which refused an application by Bosnia and Herzegovina to pursue a case against the state of Serbia for genocide at Srebrenica. The Court ruled that, whilst Serbia could have done more to prevent the genocide, no case could be brought for direct accountability. The anguish inevitably prompted by the case has not assisted the process of reconciliation between the two communities.
Provision of compensation and resettlement for people forced to leave their homes as refugees and IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) during the war, has also proven to be a slow and problematic process. UNHCR estimates that over one million people have returned to their homes since 1995, but that by mid-2008 125,000 remained in need of a sustainable solution, the vast majority of these being IDPs. Failure to assist the process of returns may jeopardise the goal of creating viable minority communities, reinforcing the divisions of war. On the other hand, each year of delay renders the logistics of returning IDPs as less feasible.
At the domestic level, Bosnians have a record of immaturity in their approach to human rights. Unsettling levels of homophobia and xenophobia receive increasing attention from civil society. The share of employment for women in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the lowest of the countries of South East Europe. The government has prioritised the pursuit of gender equality through the Gender Equality Act introduced in June 2003 and the establishment of a national Gender Agency in May 2005. There is much work to do in this area, as the country is heavily implicated in the ongoing international trafficking of women for prostitution. In addition, the systemic social denigration of women, particularly in rural areas, remains a problem
Information and Media in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The media in Bosnia and Herzegovina is in many respects a flourishing sector, with a wide range of print, broadcast and news agencies now in operation. However, entity level politics dominate much of media output, reinforcing Bosnia's internal ideological and social divisions. The media has been accused of failing to challenge nationalist party positions, or to resist alleged political party influence. However the Oxford Research International survey recorded an unusually high degree of trust in public broadcasting - development of this medium as a national service is likely to feature in the EU talks.
The Economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina
On his appointment as the RS prime minister in early 2006, Milorad Dodik declared that his top priority was to privatise Telekom Srspka, further evidence perhaps of the distance between people and politicians. With no shortage of controversy the privatisation was duly completed in 2007 with the buyer none other than Telekom Srbija, the flagship company owned by the government of Serbia. Allowing privatisation to take place at entity level in Bosnia and Herzegovina may not be in the long term interests of unification.
Political divisions therefore impede economic growth although destruction of industrial infrastructure during the war also weakened the basis for a successful transition from socialism to a market-driven economy. GDP has barely recovered to its pre-war level and Bosnia has been heavily dependent upon international aid, totalling $5.4 billion since the end of the conflict. Reports of incompetence and corruption among governmental authorities (indicated by the flourishing grey market, the ease of tax evasion and opaque privatisation arrangements) indicate that there are serious internal factors inhibiting development. The future stability of Bosnia's economy may be hampered by widespread political corruption and the inevitable, and looming, demands of international debtors.
The agriculture sector is unfortunately hampered by the wartime legacy of landmines and unexploded ordnance. Almost 4% of territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina remains inaccessible and, although casualties are decreasing, clearance operations are expensive and may not be totally complete until 2020.
The OneWorld Bosnia and Herzegovina Guide was first published in September 2005 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Ruth Grove-White
The complex political structure established in the aftermath of the civil war has impeded the delivery of policies to advance the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Furthermore, as the last official census was completed in 1991, there is a lack of reliable statistical data for human development. A further census is not due until 2011.
In light of the chaos of the post-war years, the baseline for the MDGs has been moved from 1990 to 2001 and the government has adopted a poverty line defined as 60% of median income - 19% of the population was below this point in 2001. World Bank data for 2008 reveals that the figure is virtually unchanged at 18%, with a further 30% of the population described as at risk of “an income shock” – which the world economic crisis may now impose. Unemployment has also been adopted as a poverty indicator for MDG purposes with a target of 12% by 2015; however the IMF has quoted a figure of 23% during 2008 and there are concerns that the real figure may be higher still. Over 50% of young people lack formal employment and over 25% of the population lack access to healthcare services.
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| Roma in Bosnia © OSCE |
Conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina
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| Refugees from the Balkans war © R.LeMoyne / United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |
Latest estimates suggest that 97,000 civilians of all ethnicities were killed between 1992 and 1995; the Bosniac population suffering the highest casualties. Amnesty International considers that a further 13,000 were never accounted for. Approximately 2.2 million people were forced to move from their homes, becoming displaced either within Bosnia or as international refugees. In addition, resentment against the international community grew through its failure to broker a successful peace agreement, and its reluctance to intervene militarily to protect Bosnian civilians, most infamously for the genocide at Srebrenica that killed 8,000 men and boys in 1995.
Eventually in 1995 the Dayton Peace Agreement was signed, establishing a complex national constitution which successfully ended the fighting but which has failed so far to relax ethnic division. The most significant power for political decision-making currently lies with two semi-autonomous regions known as "entities": the Republika Srpska (RS) which has a Serb majority, and the Bosniac-Croat Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (the Federation) which has a Bosniac/Croat majority. Each "entity" has its own constitution, legal system, prime minister and parliament so that welfare, education and health services differ greatly between the two, all too often favouring one ethnicity's interests over the other.
There is also a national parliament and a Bosnian presidency, with limited powers and convoluted procedures for decision-making. For example, the presidency, responsible primarily for international policy and relations, is a 3-member coalition representing each of the ethnic groups. Decisions cannot be made without the full consensus of all three members - a consensus which is often slow, if not impossible, to reach.
The overall structure is supervised by the Office of the High Representative (OHR), a position of wide-ranging powers akin to a colonial era governor. The current incumbent, Miroslav Lajcak from Slovakia, has authority to sack any public official operating in contradiction to the principles of the Dayton Agreement. The European Union Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUFOR) provides an ongoing international peacekeeping presence across the country, although its numbers are now greatly reduced to around 2,500 troops.
UN willingness to maintain this structure is wearing thin and the OHR is due to be closed in November 2009, more than two years later than intended. A handover to Bosnian control cannot be contemplated without progress towards a less divisive political framework, progress which has been extremely limited in more than a decade since Dayton. There is now an urgent need for Bosnians to amend the constitution to create stronger central government and embrace a multi-ethnic nation.
Politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina
These imperatives were constantly threatened with calamity during 2007, a year which all concerned may prefer to forget. New governments formed in the aftermath of elections held in October 2006 reflected the voters' reluctance to embark on a meaningful shift towards candidates presenting a vision of unification. Essential laws and constitutional reform were gridlocked in a state of intransigence rather than compromise.
Bosniac politicians, led by their representative in the rotating presidency, Haris Silajdzic, favour dismantling the entities in favour of stronger central government - to compromise this vision would be tantamount to conceding the wartime goals of ethnic cleansing. By contrast the Serbs see the retention of RS as defence against the potential voting majority of the Bosniacs. The forceful RS entity prime minister, Milorad Dodik, even cites the recent independence of Kosovo as a template for a referendum on the separation of RS.
Towards the end of 2007 Mr. Lajcak was forced to exercise his powers, amending a voting procedure which was blocking progress. He does not hesitate to invoke European Union (EU) membership as the one vision that unites the country. Although a decade or more away, this prospect drew concessions on the mechanism for creating a unified national police force which in turn led to the crucial signing of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU in June 2008.
The development of national civil society since the war has thus far been dominated by the presence of numerous international NGOs and inter-governmental organisations. However, it is hoped that the progressive withdrawal of the international community will allow domestic "third sector" initiatives to emerge, challenging the current social and political stalemate at local and national levels. A dispiriting UNDP-sponsored grassroots survey published by Oxford Research International in July 2007 found that two-thirds of people aged under 30 would leave the country if given the opportunity. Focus groups revealed widespread disillusionment with the convoluted political system with little interest in participation. It seems clear that politicians are failing to connect with the priorities of their constituents who feel that a more unified society moving towards EU membership would release the economic benefits that they desperately seek.
Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Human rights issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina are dominated by the attempts of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), established in 1993 in The Hague, to establish accountability for the most serious crimes committed during the war. Serbia’s record of cooperation with the ICTY was transformed during 2008 with the capture of Radovan Karadzic, now on trial for genocide and crimes against humanity. At the national level, the Bosnian War Crimes Chamber opened its first trial in May 2006 and has so far conducted about 100 prosecutions of war criminals. A sizeable backlog of cases awaits attention.
A landmark ruling was made in 2007 by a separate court, the International Court of Justice, which refused an application by Bosnia and Herzegovina to pursue a case against the state of Serbia for genocide at Srebrenica. The Court ruled that, whilst Serbia could have done more to prevent the genocide, no case could be brought for direct accountability. The anguish inevitably prompted by the case has not assisted the process of reconciliation between the two communities.
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| Marko, a Bosnian Serb returnee © OSCE |
At the domestic level, Bosnians have a record of immaturity in their approach to human rights. Unsettling levels of homophobia and xenophobia receive increasing attention from civil society. The share of employment for women in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the lowest of the countries of South East Europe. The government has prioritised the pursuit of gender equality through the Gender Equality Act introduced in June 2003 and the establishment of a national Gender Agency in May 2005. There is much work to do in this area, as the country is heavily implicated in the ongoing international trafficking of women for prostitution. In addition, the systemic social denigration of women, particularly in rural areas, remains a problem
Information and Media in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The media in Bosnia and Herzegovina is in many respects a flourishing sector, with a wide range of print, broadcast and news agencies now in operation. However, entity level politics dominate much of media output, reinforcing Bosnia's internal ideological and social divisions. The media has been accused of failing to challenge nationalist party positions, or to resist alleged political party influence. However the Oxford Research International survey recorded an unusually high degree of trust in public broadcasting - development of this medium as a national service is likely to feature in the EU talks.
The Economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina
On his appointment as the RS prime minister in early 2006, Milorad Dodik declared that his top priority was to privatise Telekom Srspka, further evidence perhaps of the distance between people and politicians. With no shortage of controversy the privatisation was duly completed in 2007 with the buyer none other than Telekom Srbija, the flagship company owned by the government of Serbia. Allowing privatisation to take place at entity level in Bosnia and Herzegovina may not be in the long term interests of unification.
|
| Bosnian weavers co-op © Advocacy Project |
The agriculture sector is unfortunately hampered by the wartime legacy of landmines and unexploded ordnance. Almost 4% of territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina remains inaccessible and, although casualties are decreasing, clearance operations are expensive and may not be totally complete until 2020.
The OneWorld Bosnia and Herzegovina Guide was first published in September 2005 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Ruth Grove-White
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