B&H

Democratic values and principles have been under fire in Bosnia and Herzegovina for years, from within and without, a battle between ethnocracy and democracy is being waged in the country at the expense of its citizens.

The Dayton Agreement is centred around a warped, ethnicised view that accords a special role in the state to the three constitutional peoples – the Bosniaks, the Croats and the Serbs. The overall population, the citizens, the citoyens were effectively stripped of their powers; the individual person degraded – existing merely as an instrument of ethnic power cartels. Click here for download

Criminal ethno-clans have dominated the political scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina for three decades, and the destructive ideologies of the 1990s have never been placed ad acta. Many voters discovered the power of their vote at the local elections, in order to reject the ruling parties in urban centres. In Sarajevo, an alternative block won. The Serbian secessionists surrounding the obstructive member of the BiH Presidency Milorad Dodik suffered a defeat in their stronghold Banja Luka. The voting was accompanied by massive electoral fraud.

At that time, in May 2006, a renowned architect from Sarajevo Lidumil Braco Alikalfić published a significant text – an expert analysis – on the shortcomings identified by that moment and the “tragedy” that was unfolding primarily in Igman and Bjelašnica in terms of the natural degradation and lack of awareness of this issue, the wrong orientation towards “cementing” the mountains in favour of apartments, hotels and parking lots.

Interview with Prof. Christian Schwarz-Schilling, Former Federal Minister and former EU High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina The interview was conducted by Marion Kraske, Head of the Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Sarajevo

The feminist edition of Perspectives Magazine, a regional publication published annually by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, aims to present the perspectives of Southeastern Europe to an international audience, to analyze global and regional trends and to provide insights into developments and political debates. The theme of this year's issue is gender and feminism in the Western Balkans, which is presented through four thematic units (State of the Art, Gender in Transitions: Revolution is Female?, Interventions and Resistance), which gives an overview of the context, perception of gender and the state of women's rights, and opens the issue of gender by social (re-)evolution and conflicts, initiatives and practices that contribute to the dismantling of patriarchy and very concrete practices of resistance in our countries. Through the issues of gender violence, political participation, economic relations, ecology, activism, physicality and from the perspective of female scientists, activists, journalists and writers, we focus on a kind of strategy for women's rights in the Balkans: is it based on the premise that we do not get tired and give up. This issue of Balkan Perspectives was written by women and describes the rights and fights for gender equality which last for generations in the Western Balkans.

"It all started when the fake FB profile Fatima Hadzic USK called for protests. People were called to organize and return migrants, that is, to prevent their arrival in Velika Kladuša and surrounding areas."

After not having been held for 12 years, the elections in Mostar on December 20 will be a historical event in the sense of reviving democracy in this city.