A Proposed Amendment to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s history is mired by ethnic violence between the three major ethnicities: Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs. Figure 1 highlights the minimum casualties of the Bosnian war by ethnicity, with Bosniak Muslims consisting the greatest proportion of those killed.

Figure 1. Minimum numbers of persons killed in the 1992–95 War in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by ethnicity. (Figure 2, Zwierzchowski & Tabeau, 2010)

The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the outcome of the nation’s bloody inter-ethnic war; specifically, Annex 4 of the Dayton Accords, the peace treaty which ended the war. There is widespread academic criticism of Bosnia’s constitution ranging from the basis of its rigidity (Bieber, 2006) to an entrenchment of ethnic divisions (Brass, 1991; Reynolds, 2000). This article suggests an incremental approach towards the ethnic-power sharing agreement in Bosnia: rather than proposing that the entire tripartite executive or legislative structure be scrapped in one fell swoop, we advance a subtle improvement to the language of the constitution which does away with the condition of territorial representation in the electoral process. Currently, the Croat and Bosniak members of the presidency must be elected from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whereas the Serb member must be elected from the Republic of Srpska. This arrangement prevents Croats and Bosniaks in the Republic of Srpska and Serbs in the Federation from running for the Presidency. This…