I Book Review: Post-Conflict Housing Restitution: The European Human Rights Perspective, with a Case Study on Bosnia and Herzegovina

How are diaspora involvement in peacebuilding and elite cooperation in multi-ethnic municipalities complementary? This article examines how local elites perceive and respond to conflict-generated diaspora's role in peacebuilding in nine post-conflict multi-ethnic municipalities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and whether these perceptions can determine types of inter-ethnic cooperation within local institutions. Using a systematic comparative case study analysis utilising ideal-type fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), I derive four types of relationships. The results indicate that local elites, experiencing various levels of direct and indirect interaction with diaspora communities, perceive diaspora's role in the process as constraining their own cooperation prospects. The analysis also demonstrates that local elites perceive diaspora as insufficiently competent and imperfectly coordinated to tackle major challenges in local peacebuilding frameworks and that diaspora actions do not significantly affect the reform of current dynamics and practices of intra-ethnic cooperation among elites.

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Bosnian voices from the bottom of the well: Genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity and victims’ right to remedies

International Review of Victimology ◽

10.1177/02697580211046402 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 026975802110464

Author(s):

Alma Begicevic

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽

Public Discourse ◽

Peace Treaty ◽

Close Family Member ◽

Cultural Rights ◽

Post Conflict ◽

Archival Documents ◽

Post War ◽

The One

Human rights advocates call for reparation as an important step to acknowledge and repair historical injustice and mass harms. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, victims of war continue to seek monetary reparation for non-pecuniary damages caused by genocide: murder, injury to human body and dignity, and harms inflicted upon a close family member. They seek legal remedies using national, foreign, and international human rights judicial venues. Drawing from qualitative, ethnographic research data and archival documents, the article examines legal claims and public discourse regarding reparation and makes a case for a reconceptualization of reparation by including victim voices. The article concludes that despite being absent from the post-conflict victims’ reparation programs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, monetary reparation has assumed a social valuation attribute. On the one hand, it is a victim’s call for retributive, legal conceptions of justice – that someone who escaped international and national criminal justice programs pays. On the other hand, it is a tool to draw attention to Bosnian victims’ present civil and political exclusions that came with the international post-conflict peace treaty. While the post-war reconstruction focused on international trials, democratization, restorative justice, and state building programs, it also restricted socio-economic and cultural rights by redefining the citizenship and dismantling the welfare state. Reparation is a debt owed to victims.

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FACTORS HINDERING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM AND EU ACCESSION: CASE STUDY OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Administracija i javne politike ◽

10.22182/ajp.1422020.5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (2/2020) ◽

pp. 79-98

Author(s):

Sara Rajic

Keyword(s):

Public Administration ◽

Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽

Political Elite ◽

The European Union ◽

Peace Agreement ◽

Post Conflict ◽

Legal Method ◽

Public Administration Reform ◽

The Government

Public administration represents operations and practice of the government through management, administration and implementation of government policies having in mind public interests and the society as a whole. However, analysis of the political system and public administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) reveals that this definition is rather “modified” when it comes to the mentioned country. Even though public administration reform is one of the priorities for BIH, the reasons why it has not been more successful are post-conflict reconstruction and state building, unique political organisation as a result of a peace agreement, veto mechanisms and ethnic quotas which makes the consensus harder to achieve and delays adoption of important strategies. Even though political elite in BIH is committed to public administration reform and the key reform institutions have been established there is a lack of necessary knowledge and skills, competences and most importantly, political will. However, public administration reform definitely represents one of the key conditions for the future of BIH and its accession to the European Union (EU). Undoubtedly, public administration reform is a complex reform, and in this paper, the focus is on the case study of BIH by identifying its key issues on the way to the EU membership. This paper is based on analytical method with an explorative and descriptive purpose, comparative legal method, literature review method, and finally, synthesis of results, combined with professional insight and conclusions.

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Victims of Environmental Harm During Conflict

10.1093/oso/9780198784630.003.0016 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Merryl Lawry-White

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Transitional Justice ◽

Environmental Harm ◽

Environmental Damage ◽

Humanitarian Law ◽

Conflict Setting ◽

Post Conflict

This chapter considers the interaction of some of the applicable norms related to liability and reparation for environmental damage in a post-conflict setting, including human rights and humanitarian law norms (including precedents) and their interaction with each other, with a focus on the potential consequences for victims. Using displacement as a specific case study, the discussion regarding potential consequences is supported by the learning that may be drawn from precedent reparations schemes, including those implemented in a ‘transitional justice’ framework as part of an attempt to afford ‘justice’ for breaches of human rights and humanitarian law (whether related to the environment or otherwise). The chapter considers some of the potential challenges of this interaction, particularly for justice initiatives, and particularly reparations schemes, experienced in the aftermath of conflict, such as constructing a coherent post-conflict narrative, restitution (or ‘truth’), awarding reparation (including ‘restitution’), and reconciliation as part of ‘peacebuilding’.

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Introduction

Policing Human Rights ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198855125.003.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 3-31

Author(s):

Richard Martin

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Criminal Justice ◽

Northern Ireland ◽

Human Rights Law ◽

Cultural Dynamics ◽

Police Reform ◽

Post Conflict ◽

The Social ◽

The World

This chapter introduces the reader to the book’s central endeavour: to make sense of, and critically examine, the social and cultural dynamics that animate human rights law in contemporary policing. The chapter introduces the reader to the general and specific context in which this project takes place. It begins by drawing attention to the emergence of human rights as a normative vision and regulatory basis for police reform across the world and considering the issues that arise from this phenomenon for scholars of human rights and criminal justice. The chapter proceeds to describe and explain the book’s case study of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, situating the study within the country’s post-conflict society, before summarizing how the book develops across its nine substantive chapters.

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Reeducating the Hearts of Bosnian Students: An Essay on Some Aspects of Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina

East European Politics and Societies and Cultures ◽

10.1177/0888325404273502 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 319-342 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Gordana Bozic

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽

Education System ◽

Segregated Schools ◽

Culture History ◽

Adequate Education ◽

Religious Teaching ◽

The Creation ◽

The Difference

The article looks into the present education system in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the influence of politics in the creation and maintenance of segregated schools. It analyzes the concept of “educational protectionism,” which underlines the difference between “ethnically correct education” and “adequate education,” the latter being embedded in the human rights for group minorities to have education that reflect their language, culture, history, and religion. The article presents a preliminary case study of a multiethnic schoolin Popov Most, Eastern Bosnia, analyzing parents’ attitudes toward controversial educational issues such as language, religious teaching, and history.

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