Republika Srpska today delivered its 23rd Report to the UN Security Council. Below is the report’s introduction and executive summary.
Republika Srpska’s 23rd Report to the UN Security Council
Introduction and Executive Summary
Republika Srpska (“RS”), a party to the treaties that make up the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords and one of the two Entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina (“BiH”), is pleased to submit this 23rd Report to the UN Security Council.
Part I of the report emphasizes the importance of respect for the Dayton Accords. The RS continues to be firmly committed to the Dayton Accords, including the BiH Constitution. In order for BiH to succeed and prosper, other actors in BiH, such as BiH’s Bosniak political parties, must likewise respect the Dayton compromise. It is also essential that the international community, including the High Representative (“HR”), abide by and honor the terms of the Dayton Accords.
In part II, the report explains why the response to the pandemic in BiH proves that the Dayton constitutional system works, even at a time of deep divisions and during a severe worldwide crisis. BiH’s decentralized structure has enabled the RS to take rapid and effective measures to deal with the pandemic and its economic effects. This is despite attempts by BiH’s Bosniak political parties, led by the SDA, to exploit the crisis for its political ends, as discussed in Attachment 4 to the report.
In part III, the report examines rule of law issues, first explaining why the BiH Constitutional Court, which is dominated by a political alliance of its three foreign judges and two Bosniak judges and which lacks independence from the Office of the High Representative (“OHR”), must be
reformed if the rule of law is to be upheld and respected in BiH. As explained in Attachment 1 to the report, this reform must include replacing the foreign judges with BiH citizens, as the European Union has indicated should be a key priority. The Constitutional Court must also respect the limits of its own jurisdiction.
Part III next emphasizes that the HR and other foreign officials need to stop subverting the Constitutional Court’s integrity with ex parte communications and other external influence on the Constitutional Court’s foreign judges. Part III also explains why respect for the rule of law in BiH must begin with respect for the Dayton Accords, the entirety of which is binding law. Finally, Part III explains why a recent decision of the Constitutional Court is contrary to the BiH Constitution—a point examined in greater detail in Attachment 2 to the report.
In part IV, the report examines how the OHR, far from performing its proper role under Dayton, plays a deleterious role in BiH. During the unprecedented crisis created by the COVID-19 outbreak, the OHR has done nothing to help BiH respond and has even tried to siphon scarce
resources and undermine the effectiveness of the Entity governments, which bear the primary responsibility to address it. Part IV also explains that the issue of state property, which remains a source of bitter division in BiH, would have been resolved years ago if not for the HR’s uninvited
interference. Lastly, part IV examines recent examples of the HR failing to act as a neutral facilitator but instead creating and exacerbating problems.
The RS is convinced that BiH can succeed if all major parties, foreign and domestic, accept and abide by Dayton.
Read the full report here.
