Bosnia and Herzegovina

A parade was held in Eastern Sarajevo in honour of Statehood Day of Republika Srpska (RS), which commemorates the Bosnian Serbs’ declaration of a breakaway region in 1992. This event sparked the Bosnian war. Statehood Day is celebrated annually despite being banned by the country’s Constitutional Court (established through the Dayton Accords) in 2015 for being discriminatory against non-Serbs. The Court also deemed illegal a 2016 referendum and the passage of legislation in RS asserting the entity’s right to celebrate the occasion. Heavily armed Bosnian Serb police, war veterans and fascist organisations marched in the parade, stoking tensions between Bosnia and Herzegovina’s two entities. This year, the parade was moved from Banja Luka, the de facto capital of RS, to only kilometres from the state capital Sarajevo, a choice deemed by the European Parliament as, “an additional and particularly cynical provocative act.” 

Constitutional Court Social Group Equality

The state presidency elected Borjana Kristo as the Chair of the Council of Ministers, making her poised to become Bosnia and Herzegovina’s first female head of government. A multi-ethnic coalition agreement was also endorsed in only three months, a feat which took over a year following the 2018 elections. The coalition includes Kristo’s Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party and the Serb nationalist party, Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), led by the pro-Russian Milorad Dodik. It excludes the Bosniak nationalist party, Party of Democratic Action (SDA), for the first time since 2014, as opposition parties joined forces to mount a challenge. This cracked the door open for civic and multi-ethnic parties at the state level, including Our Party, which seeks to reverse the historical emphasis on nationalist parties in the political system and enters the national government for the first time. Kristo has emphasised a focus on every day economic issues, and has urged respect for the diversity and rights of each of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constituent peoples.

Gender Equality Social Group Equality Borjana Kristo

The Council of Europe Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) produced its first evaluative report on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)’s compliance with the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (known as the Istanbul Convention). While GREVIO praised BiH for ratifying the Convention and passing legislative and policy measures to tackle forced genital mutilation, forced sterilization, forced marriage, stalking and sexual harassment, it identified areas that require “urgent action.”  GREVIO found that other forms of violence against women, beyond domestic violence, are not as comprehensively addressed by legislation or policy, and that the issues which are addressed in legislation and policy are not always implemented.

CoE Gender Equality Gender-Based Violence Istanbul Convention

On 2 October citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina voted in general elections, recording a low voter turnout of 51.5 per cent. As votes were still being counted, the Office of the High Representative (OHR), an international body set up at the end of the Bosnian War in 1995, enacted changes to the constitutional and electoral law of the Federation. The OHR was able to impose the changes in the exercise of the Bonn powers accorded to the Office in 1997. The timing of the move was widely criticized. The OHR had earlier announced part of the reform package in July 2022, following protracted debate and deadlock between political parties. According to the OHR, the new measures aim to alleviate gridlock in key institutions and to give ethnic minorities, beyond the country’s three constituent peoples, greater political representation. Milorad Dodik faced allegations of vote-rigging in his bid for President of Republika Srpska, amid wider election fraud complaints brought by the opposition, and was declared the winner on 27 October, further to a recount. 

Elections Milorad Dodik