Suchergebnisse

After unveiling a monument to the genocide denier Peter Handke a few years ago, local authorities in Banja Luka – the largest city of Bosnia's Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity – are now building a massive monument to the soldiers of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) who died in the war of 1992–95. The memorial site in Banja Luka is not the first dedicated to the VRS. On the contrary, it follows the example of other towns and municipalities in the Serb-dominated areas. Together, they form an illiberal politics of remembrance developed by Bosnia, and especially Republika Srpska, since the end of the war in the 1990s. This memory politics is marked by the denial of war atrocities and the glorification of war criminals. The ongoing construction of the monument in Banja Luka shows that, almost thirty years after the conflict, there is a need to establish a new and comprehensive legal framework for memorialization in Bosnia. In essence, memorialization should be aligned with human rights and enable the development of a democratic culture. To achieve this twofold goal, constitutional and legislative reforms are needed.

Realizing that photography was her true love, Bosnian artist Aida Redžepagić left her job as a university professor and devoted herself completely to what brings her the most joy.

Bosnia & Herzegovina (B&H) is notoriously hard to govern. Scarred from a bloody war in the 1990s after the collapse of Yugoslavia, the country's constitutional order emerged in international peace talks in the United States. What later became famous as the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) might have stopped the war but, in our opinion, sowed the seeds for complex democratic problems today. As we will show in this text, the ECtHR's judgments represent a false hope for democracy in B&H, because ethnopolitical parties in B&H will not agree on how to implement the ECtHR's judgments and the Office of the High Representative will not take a more active role in this context. We therefore argue against an earlier contribution on this blog by Woelk (2023), who suggested that the solution for the implementation of the ECtHR's judgments should come from within the country, as we will show, ethnopolitical actors do not have a real interest in implementing these judgments. To put it bluntly, change from within is, alas, pie in the sky. It is much more likely that nothing changes and the powers that are remain the powers that will be.

Sevdalinka (also known as sevdah) is the folk musical expression characteristic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has taken deep roots in the musical cultures of several other Western Balkans countries.

Combining the specific counter-alto singing with accordion enables two musical ladies to give new life to cultural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from XIX century lyrical poetry to Sephardic Jewish folk songs.

The Turbe Fire Department in central Bosnia and Herzegovina proudly stands as a pillar of the community. Its 50 members, including 28 young volunteers, are unwaveringly dedicated to the protection and safety of their fellow citizens.

The 2023 European Commission report on Bosnia and Herzegovina highlights persistent challenges in meeting EU membership criteria, with ongoing issues in the judiciary, corruption, and governance. Recent events, including demands for a judge's resignation and the Republika Srpska's refusal to recognise Constitutional Court decisions, raise concerns about the country's constitutional and legal order.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is widely known as a "complex State" that has struggled to progress towards EU accession due to internal divisions. More than 25 years after the war ended, the country seems to remain stuck in transition. Recently, secession claims from Republika Srpska (RS) have become more concrete, a crisis has been triggered around the Constitutional Court. Amid these dynamic developments, a judgment by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) could cause tensions, if not even the opening of Pandora's box: After a series of previous judgments of a similar kind, on 29 August, 2023, the ECtHR published its judgment in the case of Kovačević v. Bosnia and Herzegovina. The judgment is a fundamental and systemic critique of the power-sharing arrangements and clearly determines the direction any constitutional amendment or reform needs to take: The only possible way is to reduce the institutional relevance of ethnicity and of the privileged status of 'constituent peoples'.

Amidst the current headlines dominated by the conflict in Ukraine, International Youth Day presents an opportune moment to reflect on the profound lessons learned from the war’s legacy in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). While the world’s attention may have shifted to other pressing crises and global dynamics, the enduring aftermath of the aggression on BiH […]
The post Forging a Better Tomorrow: Lessons for Today's Youth from Bosnia’s Past appeared first on International Republican Institute.

"The global community faces unprecedented challenges to democracy. In Ukraine, Putin's illegal war continues to target civilians, with the Kremlin's senseless aggression intensifying by the day. In Sudan, the military and the paramilitary units of the Rapid Support Forces have been in conflict since April. And in Bosnia and Herzegovina, political gridlock and rising nationalist […]
The post Empowering Young People is Crucial to Democratic Success appeared first on International Republican Institute.

Washington, DC – The latest multinational survey of the Western Balkans by the International Republican Institute's (IRI) Center for Insights in Survey Research (CISR) shows broad support for joining the European Union (EU) and strong majorities who view Russia's war on Ukraine as unjustified. The countries surveyed were Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia.  […]
The post IRI Western Balkans Poll: Strong Support for EU Membership, Russia's Attacks on Ukraine Unjustified appeared first on International Republican Institute.

In March 2024, the High Representative (HR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Christian Schmidt, once again used his "Bonn powers" under the Dayton Peace Agreement which, inter alia, enable him to impose substantial legislation. After a dark warning, he enacted a new package of reforms concerning the electoral process. While these reforms reflect the necessary and desirable changes in the process of the EU accession, concurrently resolving a political stalemate, this schmidtian mode also creates further political cleavages. Nevertheless, arguably a "Smith" has found a fairly clever way forward.

The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is described as one of the few success stories of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA). In contrast to the state-level legislature, the Court's decision-making process in principle cannot be vetoed. Voting rules do not condition the presence of all three ethnic groups. This has made it difficult for Republika Srpska's (RS) political leadership to block, boycott or undermine the work of the Court compared to other state-level institutions. However, recent months saw the RS identifying and seizing a rare moment of vulnerability with potentially severe consequences. If RS does not elect new judges in the meantime, not even a Court's small chamber will be able to operate.

Hannes Grandits is Professor of Southeast European History at Humboldt University in Berlin. He is the author of The End of Ottoman Rule in Bosnia: Conflicting Agencies and Imperial Appropriations (Routledge 2021). A conversation with Alex Favalli.

by Sophie Gueudet The full-scale war against Ukraine has also raised fears that Russia could further destabilise the peace process in Bosnia-Herzegovina – by using its significant influence in Republika Srpska (RS). How did the interplay between Moscow and the Bosnian-Serb leadership develop since 2022? An analysis through the prism of patron-client relations. Since February 2022, international organisations and Western powers involved in the peace process in Bosnia-Herzegovina have dreaded a spill-over effect of Russia's war against Ukraine in the Western Balkans, and therefore […]