What Has the OSCE So Far Failed to Do in BiH?

The High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) of BiH concluded that the OSCE can and should inspect war crimes cases pending before the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, writes the news agency Patria.

This conclusion, reached at today's HJPC session, has been deemed unacceptable by many experts, who argue that the OSCE has much more pressing work to do in BiH, but for some reason, the reaction of this international world organization has been absent countless times, often when basic human rights in BiH are violated.

Among the examples when the OSCE should have reacted and protected human rights in BiH—but did not react, or merely issued a statement—are moments when Bosniaks are denied the right to language, flag, use of private property, and the denial of the internationally recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina...

Bosniak children in the BiH entity of Republika Srpska have been banned from learning national group subjects for several years, and recently the Bosnian language has been abolished in school desks in RS.

Human rights experts have assessed that the ban on studying the Bosnian language in RS is a violation of basic human rights and a violation of the Dayton Peace Agreement...

Representatives of peace missions in BiH once again issued only a statement calling for respect for human rights, but did nothing more than that.

Furthermore, a campaign has been ongoing for several months in RS banning the display of the flag of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which flew in front of all world organizations until 1998.
The authorities in RS also reacted sluggishly to this provocation.

Nana Fata Orlović from Konjević Polje has been unable to reclaim her own property, on which a church was illegally built, for several years.

The OSCE did not exert itself even when Milorad Dodik announced a referendum on the Court and Prosecutor's Office of BiH, nor when he says that Bosnia and Herzegovina does not exist for him, when Serbian authorities deny the internationally recognized Srebrenica genocide, and do nothing to abolish two schools under one roof...

The President of SBiH, Amer Jerlagić, reminded in an interview with Patria that the OSCE is now headed by Ivica Dačić, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, and that the OSCE's interference in the Prosecutor's Office of BiH comes from the kitchen of eastern neighbors, writes NAP.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security organization, comprising 56 member states. Established as a regional arrangement under Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter, the OSCE is a forum for political negotiations, with an emphasis on conflict prevention, crisis management, and post-conflict rehabilitation.

Decisions made by the OSCE have more political than legally binding character and are made by consensus.

The OSCE should take a comprehensive approach to security issues, integrating the politico-military, economic, environmental, and human dimensions of security. The Organization's activities include arms control, confidence- and security-building measures, human rights, national minorities, democratization, policing strategies, counter-terrorism, as well as economic and environmental activities.

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, concluded in Dayton and signed in Paris at the end of 1995, which ended nearly four years of war, shapes the work of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. By this Agreement, the OSCE was designated as one of the organizations responsible for providing assistance in ensuring lasting peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and, consequently, implicitly for providing assistance in the state's post-war recovery and contributing to building a stable, secure, and democratic society, writes NAP.