Warnings from Bosnia: The Dayton agreement and the implementation of human rights

Abstract

The Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) of 21 November 1995 was able to secure a halt to hostilities between the warring Serb, Croat and Bosniac parties in Bosnia and Hercegovina. However, the plan that emerged from the peace negotiations - to create stability, restore human rights and build enduring peace in the devastated state - might well be judged a monumentally difficult task. It is now over four years since the signing of the agreement (known formally as the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Hercegovina - GFAP) and while there have been some advances toward an integrated society, over a million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) are yet to return home, ethnically motivated violence continues, and politically and ethnically biased officials and police forces hamper the integration process. Moreover, the international community’s effort has come under criticism for the extent to which it has allowed the Office of the High Representative (OHR) to increase its powers of intervention in Bosnia, a shift in policy which, it is alleged, has restricted the civil and political rights of the Bosnian people.