12.03.2002

Speech by the Senior Deputy High Representative, Matthias Sonn, on “Humanitarian Interventions and Crisis Management: the Lessons of the Balkan Experience” at the Annual IRIS Strategic Conference

In the last six years, Bosnia and Herzegovina has undergone a triple transition - from war to peace, from communism to democracy, from a planned economy to a market economy - and let’s not forget that like many countries, including the other countries of former Yugoslavia, it has had to define itself -- for the first time in its modern histor [...]
09.02.2002

Speech by the High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch at International Conference “Developing New Policies of International Support-Lessons (not) Learned in BiH” – Peace and Security – institutional development and the rule of law

In the two and a half years since I became High Representative in BiH, I have found myself repeating the phrases "institution building" and "rule of law" again and again - not because they have some sort of mantra-like power but because they are shorthand for the body of legislation and practice which a modern democracy needs in order to work prope [...]