In accordance with his mandate under the Dayton Peace Agreement, High Representative Valentine Inzko submitted a Report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon on 30 April outlining the status of peace implementation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, identifying challenges and explaining the strategy which the International Community is adopting in order to meet these challenges.
The High Representative’s Report covers the period from 27 October 2012 to 20 April 2013. It was forwarded by the Secretary-General to the Security Council on 3 May. This is the 43rd Report to the UN by a High Representative and the ninth Report since Dr. Valentin Inzko took office on 26 March 2009.
In the latest Report the High Representative noted that intra-party gridlock in the Federation, the lack of legislative progress at the state level and that, despite the smooth change of Government, the challenges to the Dayton Peace Agreement and to BiH sovereignty from politicians in the Republika Srpska have continued. He pointed out that these problems have persisted against a backdrop of material hardship caused by an economic crisis that the political parties have failed to address in a serious or effective way.
The High Representative stressed that nothing can be achieved without consolidating the rule of law and he cited “numerous cases in which political leaders, parties and institutions sidestep, ignore or in some cases directly violate requirements set out in constitutions and laws for the sake of political expediency.”
He also drew attention to “challenges to state-level institutions established to safeguard the rule of law” and to “the non-enforcement of decisions of the BiH Constitutional Court.”
The High Representative noted that the OHR and European Union Delegation and EUSR, together with the rest of the International Community, continue to work closely with one another and with BiH stakeholders to overcome political shortcomings and get the country back on the road to Euro-Atlantic integration and full post-war recovery.
The full text of the High Representative’s Report can be accessed here.