The departure of Christian Schmidt presents Bosnia and Herzegovina with a historic opportunity to free itself from the tyranny of the Bonn Powers and return authority to its own institutions and democratically elected representatives, according to an article by Joseph Schmitz and Brian Kennedy of Harvard University.
In their scholarly paper, “Bosnia and Herzegovina: Where Is the American People’s Interest?”, the authors argue that there is a realistic possibility that Acting High Representative Louis Crishock, as an official in the administration of President Donald Trump, could declare Schmidt’s legacy null and void.
The paper emphasizes that none of the three signatories to the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement ever consented to the Bonn Powers, which were introduced in 1997.
According to the authors, the most principled solution to what they describe as the authoritarian Bonn Powers is for the three signatories to the Dayton Peace Agreement to reaffirm its three fundamental principles: the rule of law, the right to self-determination, and subsidiarity.
“Should any actor attempt to undermine, circumvent, or challenge previously adopted decisions, the Acting High Representative should take all necessary measures within the scope of his mandate, in accordance with Annex 10 of the Dayton Peace Agreement, to ensure the consistent implementation of the civilian aspects of the peace agreement,” the authors write in the paper published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.
Referring to Max Primorac’s paper, “Bosnia and Herzegovina: Ending the Failed State-Building Project,” prepared for The Heritage Foundation on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the authors argue that Schmidt’s actions and the use of the Bonn Powers have undermined democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The country is dysfunctional, deeply divided, and deprived of sovereignty. It is governed not by its three constituent peoples but by a group of international bureaucrats empowered to arbitrarily remove democratically elected officials, overturn enacted laws, disenfranchise voters, and impose a fictional ‘Bosnian’ civic identity that favors Muslims over Christians,” the authors quote from Primorac’s work.
Marking the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence, the authors draw a parallel between the oppression exercised by King George III over the American colonies and what they describe as the undemocratic authority exercised by the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“With Schmidt’s resignation, the time has come for the authoritarian Bonn Powers, under which hundreds of acts of quasi-legislation were imposed, to be declared null and void as though they had never existed,” the paper states.
Citing the book “The Constitutional Position of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina” by former President of the Constitutional Court Mato Tadić, the authors note that High Representatives imposed a total of 341 laws that were never adopted by the elected representatives of any of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s three constituent peoples.
Source: Glas Srpske
