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Ethno-Territorial Politics and Sub-national Constitutionalism: Lessons from Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Territorial Politics and Secession

Part of the book series: Federalism and Internal Conflicts ((FEINCO))

Abstract

Most studies in territorial governance seem to disregard the importance of the link between territory and identity. Meanwhile, this link is connected to territorial conflicts based on identity differences. Evident from the example of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), identity-based territorial conflicts can generate identity-based territorial reconfiguration of the country. After the Bosnian War, B&H became a multilevel system consisting of two entities, ten cantons, and one district. Each entity and canton has its constitution while the district has a statute. The constitutional system rests on three constituent peoples who often act as decentralising and centralising forces. This chapter aims to explore the interplay between sub-national constitutionalism and ethno-territorial politics using B&H as an example. The chapter examines the association between territory and identity and investigates the link between sub-national constitutionalism and ethno-territorial delineation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The term is borrowed from Alfred Stepan, “Towards a New Comparative Politics of Federalism, Multinationalism, and Democracy: Beyond Rikerian Federalism,” in Federalism and Democracy in Latin America, ed. Edward L. Gibson (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004).

  2. 2.

    The term Bosniak was officially introduced in the 1994 Washington Agreement to mark the Bosnian Muslims (Sahadžić 2012). In former Yugoslavia, the Bosnian Muslims were recognised as Muslims (“muslims with a capital M”) (Bougarel 2017) to differentiate between religious and ethnic communities.

  3. 3.

    Before the 1990s, B&H was never an independent state (Keil 2013).

  4. 4.

    For detailed explanations see Robert M. Hayden, From Yugoslavia to the Western Balkans: Studies of a European Disunion, 1991–2011 (Leiden: Brill, 2013).

  5. 5.

    The official documents can be consulted here: Declaration on Proclamation of the Republic of the Serb people of B&H (Official Gazette of the Serb people in B&H 2/92), The Constitution of the Serb Republic (Official Gazette of the Serb people in B&H 3/92), and The Constitution of RS (Official Gazette of RS 21/92, 28/94, 8/96, 13/96, 15/96, 16/96, 21/96, 21/02, 26/02, 30/02, 31/02, 69/02, 31/03, 98/03, 115/05, and 117/05).

  6. 6.

    The official documents can be consulted here: The Washington Framework Agreement (Official Gazette of the FB&H 1/94) and The Constitution of the Federation of B&H (Official Gazette of the FB&H 1/94, 13/97, 16/02, 22/02, 52/02, 63/03, 9/94, 20/04, 33/04, 71/05, 72/05, and 88/08), Agreement on the Criteria for the Definition of the Territory of the FB&H (Official Gazette of the Federation of B&H 1/94), and Law on Federal Units (Official Gazette of the Federation of B&H 3/96).

  7. 7.

    Detailed explanation for each plan can be found in Saadia Touval, Mediation in the Yugoslav Wars, the Critical Years, 1990–95 (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002). Melanie C. Greenberg and Margaret E. McGuinness, “From Lisbon to Dayton: International Mediation and the Bosnia Crisis,” in Words over War: Mediation and Arbitration to Prevent Deadly Conflict, ed. Melanie C. Greenberg, John H. Barton, and Margaret E. McGuinness (Lenham, Boulder, New York, and Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000).

  8. 8.

    The Agreement has never been ratified in the Parliamentary Assembly of B&H. UN Doc. A/50/790 (1995) and S/1995/999 (1995) from 30/11/1995.

  9. 9.

    Amendment I to the Constitution of B&H (Official Gazette of B&H 25/09).

  10. 10.

    The OHR (together with the High Representative for B&H) was created in 1995 to supervise the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. Among other, the OHR can adopt and enforce decisions when there is a deadlock in decision-making. Despite, the transferred powers and competences are not numerous. They include defense and security policy (unified Armed Forces of B&H, Intelligence-Security Agency of B&H, and the State Investigation and Protection Agency), the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, and Value Added Tax among few.

  11. 11.

    In 2009, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), deciding in the case of Sejdić and Finci v. BaH established that the constitutional provisions which render the applicants (in this case the persons who do not identify themselves as one of the constituent peoples) ineligible for election to the Presidency of B&H discriminatory. Later on, in 2014, in the case of Zornić v. B&H, the ECtHR reinforced the previous decision. Finally, in 2016, in the case of Pilav v. B&H, the ECtHR again looked into the provisions of the Constitution, this time from a different angle. In particular, the Presidency of B&H consists of one Bosniak and one Croat, each directly elected from the FB&H, and one Serb directly elected from the RS. The ECtHR held that the applicant (in this case a Bosniak living in the RS) is prevented from being entitled to stand for the election to the Presidency and therefore the Court found it to be a discriminatory feature of the constitutional system.

  12. 12.

    The term “ethnic key” is colloquially used to define the ethnic balance of constituent peoples.

  13. 13.

    One of their demands used to be a separate TV channel in Croatian (see Knezevic 2017).

  14. 14.

    Željko Komšić served as a Croat member of the Presidency of B&H during two mandates from 2006 to 2014. In 2018 he was elected for a third term. However, the Croats acknowledge that he has been legally elected but his legitimacy has been highly contested. This is because, even though he declares himself a Croat, his political views coincide with the Bosniak political views. This makes him popular among the Bosniaks who vote for him. As a result, the Croats blame the constitutional design and protest against the election system for their inability to influence their choice.

  15. 15.

    For example, the RS has highly disapproved of the establishment of the Court of B&H, the Prosecutor’s Office of B&H, and the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of B&H. Because the powers and competences were imposed by the OHR, the RS and the Serbs opposed the work of these institutions to the point that the RS has threatened to organise a referendum to abolish the institutions.

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  1. University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Maja Sahadžić

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  1. Maja Sahadžić
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Correspondence to Maja Sahadžić .

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  1. University of Sofia ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Martin Belov

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Sahadžić, M. (2021). Ethno-Territorial Politics and Sub-national Constitutionalism: Lessons from Bosnia and Herzegovina. In: Belov, M. (eds) Territorial Politics and Secession. Federalism and Internal Conflicts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64402-4_12

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