In Bosnia and Herzegovina, we have two supra-constitutional, extra-constitutional factors that suit no one. The legality and legitimacy of the OHR and the High Representative – and of what they do – are questionable. There must be a legal act or regulation, and there is none. Consequently, their legality is also questionable, because I am not sure that the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina support all of those decisions or support everything those two bodies do, said Radomir Lukić, professor at the Faculty of Law in East Sarajevo, while appearing on our Morning Programme.
- A state is the unity of several of its elements, among which authority and the people, along with territory, are the most important. That means state authority deriving from the people and accountable to the people. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, this is not the case, because it could not pride itself on being a sovereign and independent state that independently decides on its own affairs, matters of foreign policy, and whose institutions are not subordinate to any authority greater than itself, whether from within its territory or from outside by other states or international organizations – Lukić stated.
He says that one of those two bodies is the Peace Implementation Council, which has assumed the role of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina because, according to its own opinion, it is the body that has appointed itself to that role.
- Because that body does not exist in any instrument or document of international law. These are self-appointed members consisting of 44 states and up to 18 international organizations, which can suspend the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and provide the High Representative with dictatorial powers, authorizing him to exercise the power to amend the Constitution, to amend and enact so-called laws, to exercise judicial authority, to pass judgments without law, procedure or rights, and to replace the administrative authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its entities – says Lukić.
On the other hand, he pointed out that there is also the “High Representative”, who, as he says, is part of the Dayton arrangement because his existence is established by Annex 10, whereby his rights are limited to the role of mediation and assistance to the parties in ways that can help Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Source: RTRS
