Speeches

The Office of the High Representative is working with local and international partners to establish the legal and political framework that Bosnia and Herzegovina needs if it is to achieve economic lift-off. The framework is now partly in place. But there is still a great deal that needs to be done - and time is of the essence! Bosnia and Herzegovin [...]

It is with great pleasure that I am with you today. Over two and a half years have passed since I took up the post of High Representative in August 1999. It is a truism to state that the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the wider region was considerably different then compared to what we face today. Yugoslavia and Croatia were ruled by re [...]

I would like to express my thanks to Ulrich Bucher and all his staff in Canton Six. As the Special Envoy for Bugojno, Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje and Prozor-Rama, Mr Bucher was responsible for streamlining OHR operations, closing the Bugojno office and establishing headquarters in Travnik, where he is the new head of office.

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 [...]

Distinguished presidents of several courts, distinguished deputy ministers, distinguished judges and prosecutors, distinguished professors, distinguished representatives of the State and Entity Governments, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Brcko district and the Symposium on the Law on Criminal Procedure. I am really honored and pleased that so man [...]

Each time I have had the honour of addressing institutions of the Council of Europe during my two and a half years as High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I have been able to report developments bringing the country measurably closer to its goal of joining the Council.

We are here today to begin a public debate regarding the future of education in BiH. It is no secret that the present state of education in this country is deplorable. Failure to address the quality and state of education offered to the youth of this country would be nothing less than catastrophic.

The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council came into being – originally as the North Atlantic Cooperation Council -- in July 1990, at a time of fundamental and often dramatic change. With the fall of Communism and the end of the Cold War, global diplomacy entered uncharted waters. A decade ago, the West hustled to craft a positive response to the [...]

Six years after the signing of the Dayton/Paris Accords, Bosnia and Herzegovina remains in every sense at the heart of a region making slow but genuine progress towards a stable and prosperous future. There are those who believe that the time has come for the IC to pack its bags and move on. My message to you today is that we are not there yet R [...]

Thank you for inviting me to join this discussion on the future of Sarajevo University. It is a centre of learning which can look back on a distinguished history, and with imagination and wise management, it can take its place again among the best European universities. However, instituting reform and sweeping away the unacceptable habits which hav [...]