What progress in transitional justice has taken place in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) since the Dayton Agreement? This report from the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) provides an overview of some of the major issues and developments. It examines the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), local trials, the proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Srebrenica Commission. It also reports on a draft Law on Missing Persons, reparations, and the vetting of police, judges and prosecutors.
The Dayton Agreement established a complex political structure to accommodate BiH’s various warring factions: Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks). BiH is a region where, by the end of 1995, an estimated 250,000 had died and a million had been displaced. It comprises two so-called ‘entities’: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Federation) and the Republika Srpska (RS). The Federation is predominantly Bosniak and Bosnian Croat, while the RS is predominantly Bosnian Serb.
Important findings include:
- The Dayton Agreement set out a broad framework for building the new state of BiH, but it lacked a comprehensive vision of transitional justice.
- As a result, transitional justice efforts in BiH, particularly in relation to truth-seeking and reparations, have been ad hoc and incomplete.
- Despite some progress in trials and vetting, there continues to be excessive reliance on the Office of the High Representative (OHR), which has often intervened and imposed solutions in place of recalcitrant authorities.
- Ultimately the OHR and other international institutions will need to pull back from BiH and let the country run its own affairs.
- Only when that happens will it be evident whether the tremendous investment of attention and resources in BiH has effectively advanced the causes of justice and reconciliation.
The real challenge in the former Yugoslavia is how to devise a mechanism for truth-telling that will be credible across the region. After noting the passage of almost nine years of RS inactivity in the area of war crimes investigation, the High Representative stated, ‘It may be possible to say that a dynamic of obstructionism on war crimes issues is being replaced by a dynamic of greater cooperation.’
- While there are wartime victims and families in all parts of the former Yugoslavia, the greatest number resides in BiH. Since BiH is divided by ethnicity, victims and perpetrators may find themselves living in different entities.
- This issue, combined with factors such as lack of political will, denial of wrongdoing and scarcity of resources, makes it extremely difficult to develop a comprehensive reparations program. To date, none exists.
- Although the economy continues to be very weak and unemployment very high, the prospect of future EU admission, however distant, could provide BiH’s citizens with some badly needed hope.
- The citizens of BiH suffer from an excess of government and administration with few inspiring results, including in the area of transitional justice.
