OHR related Articles

A British military helicopter crashed in Central Bosnia last week. The three-man crew were able to walk away from the wreckage, and the incident appears to have been caused by bad weather rather than anything more sinister; there has not been a single attack on international peacekeepers in the nearly 10 years of peacekeeping in Bosnia.

For more than a year now a group of businessmen and academics have been actively engaged in an effort to draft legislation that would help staunch the flow of illegal timber from this country and thereby help rescue BiH’s forests from their current scandalous mismanagement. Not surprisingly this effort has been hindered – not helped – by powerful l [...]

A woman from Pale asked me recently why I assume that most people in this country want to join the European Union – she was inferring, I think, that some citizens might prefer not to integrate with the rest of Europe.
It’s not a question that’s hard to answer. The vast majority of people in this country want to join the European Union becaus [...]

Last week I announced measures that will address the failure, till now, of the RS authorities to fulfil their international obligations under the Dayton Peace Agreement. This failure is the principal obstacle to BiH securing membership of Partnership for Peace and beginning negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European [...]

The immediate policy objective for Bosnia and Herzegovina is very clear – to get through the twin gates that lead to Partnership for Peace and the start of Stabilisation and Association negotiations with the European Union.
This will lock BiH into the Euro-Atlantic integration process – and will start producing the tangible benefits, in term [...]

On the occasion of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Statehood Day, in a week when the people of BiH mark nine years since the preliminary signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, sent the following open letter to the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Anniversaries can often be contentious -- yet in commemorati [...]

On 23 November the Federation House of Peoples will finally be able to debate the merits of the Law on Investment of Public Monies. This law is long overdue, as we all know.
It is crucial to everyone, since it it will
-protect the individual interests of each and every citizen
-help improve the economy, and thus help create des [...]

The European Commission has estimated that 16 million KM needs to be spent between now and 2010 in order to bring the administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s farming sector up to European standard.
European-standard administration means organizing efficient inspection of farm products, making farm subsidies more targeted and responsive to [...]

The Federation House of Peoples will finally take up the legislation on Domestic Debt that has been mired in debate in the House of Representatives for months. The fact is that while they debated the issue the economy did not improve and neither did the chances for a better arrangement. The RS, Brcko District and the State agreed to the package o [...]

Nine years ago the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina finally came to an end.
A long-time advocate of international intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lord Ashdown took up the post of High Representative on May 27, 2002.
Now Paddy Ashdown (as he is more commonly known) shares his vision.
In May 2004 I traveled with a delegatio [...]