Dayton Peace Agreement

In his book Sjećanje i poricanje: Od ZAVNOBIHA do naših dana (Memory and Denial: From ZAVNOBiH to the Present Day), Professor Nerzuk Ćurak of the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Sarajevo describes ZAVNOBiH as “one of the most important moments in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s legal and political history”, one that still possesses “transformative power”.

The Dayton Peace Agreement defined Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state of three constituent peoples, linking political participation to ethnic affiliation. How did we arrive at this point—an ethno-political reality with three peoples instead of citizens, and three sides instead of one state?

Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) cannot yet be defined as a new "stable democracy". Čović (HDZ B&H) is trying to make changes to the B&H Election Law before the 2022 General Elections, which is to ensure the "legitimate representation" of the constituent peoples. In this way, with "legitimate representatives", a way would be opened for the implementation of their own long-term strategy, which undoubtedly goes in the direction of rounding off the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina which is inhabited by majority Catholic population, i.e. the rebirth of the "extinguished" so-called Herzeg-Bosna, its full territorial and political autonomy and its eventual annexation to the Republic of Croatia.

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

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

Agenda coming ‘in the name of Croats in BiH’ relies almost entirely on the victimology/victorious narrative, with a populist aspiration to preserve the 'nation' endangered by majoritarianism in the Federation BiH.

Bosnia and Herzegovina was not created in 1995, because Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as its peoples, the Serbs, the Croats and the Bosniaks, precede the Dayton Peace Agreement. All of them developed Bosnia and Herzegovina as their state during history. In 1995, the Serbs, the Croats and the Bosniaks did not create BiH, and no representatives of the Serbs, the Croats and the Bosniaks participated in the peace negotiations, instead Izetbegović, Milošević and Tuđman were negotiating as state Presidents . In the achieved agreement, everyone agreed that after the war “Bosnia and Herzegovina would continue its legal existence (...) along with further international recognition“.