Republika Srpska today delivered its 25th Report to the UN Security Council. Below is the report’s introduction and executive summary.
Republika Srpska’s 25th 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 25th Report to the UN Security Council.
Part I of the report outlines basic facts about the RS and its positions, including its democratic tradition and dedication to human rights. It emphasizes the RS’s commitment to the Dayton Accords and the enactment of reforms necessary for BiH’s EU integration. It further underlines that the RS supports expanding cooperation with regional partners and continuing cooperation with NATO, though not through NATO membership.
In Part II, the RS emphasizes the need for the Dayton Accords, including the BiH Constitution, to be implemented as written. Dayton has been the most successful peace treaty in recent history because it recognized BiH’s political reality by including a decentralized structure and protections for each of BiH’s constituent peoples. Unfortunately, international High Representative (HR) and the BiH Constitutional Court have eroded this structure in violation of Dayton. This erosion has led to BiH’s current dysfunction. The situation has been exacerbated by the continued failure of certain powerful people and institutions in BiH to accept the Dayton Constitution. The head of BiH’s most powerful Bosniak political party, for example, recently refused to rule out war and referred to the entire Serb community as “genocidals.”
Part III of the report explains that any proposals for legal or constitutional change in BiH require caution and consensus. First, it is vital that any legal or constitutional changes respect BiH’s essential Dayton structure. Second, efforts to promote legal or constitutional change in BiH must respect BiH’s sovereignty rather than being imposed by foreigners. Third, any legal or constitutional changes to the BiH Constitution must be effected through the processes set out in the Constitution. The RS welcomes recent US policy statements in support of the Dayton Accords, and it agrees with Secretary of State Blinken on the need for limited constitutional change to implement decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.
In Part IV, the report outlines some of the many reasons why the Office of the High Representative’s (OHR) presence in BiH should end. The secretive appointment process for a new HR is contrary to Annex 10 of the Dayton Accords, the instrument by which the HR was created. The HR’s continuing threats to use the so-called “Bonn powers,” which are patently illegal, and increasingly acknowledged as such, are provocative and destabilizing. Moreover, the HR’s continued presence undermines BiH’s progress, as former HRs have recognized.
Part V examines BiH’s progress toward becoming an EU member, as well as important barriers to such progress. As long as BiH has an HR claiming lawless dictatorial powers and a Constitutional Court with three seats reserved for foreigners, it will remain a protectorate rather than a fully sovereign state eligible for EU membership, as EU officials have recognized
Notwithstanding the challenges in BiH, the RS believes that BiH can succeed if foreign and domestic actors accept and support the letter of the Dayton Accords.
Read the whole report here.
