Milorad Dodik president of Republika Srpska. Wikimedia. Public domain.Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) once again finds itself in a perilous situation, as a referendum in Republika Srpska (RS), the smaller of two administrative units in that country, has the potential to disrupt its entire state structure. Called by RS president Milorad Dodik, the referendum seeks to negate the authority of the state court of BiH, the prosecutor’s office and the Office of the High Representative (OHR), currently led by Valentin Inzko, in Bosnia’s smaller entity.
Established as part of the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, the OHR’s task was to implement the civilian aspects of the internationally brokered peace agreement. The head of this institution is elected by the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), which oversees the general international strategy in Bosnia, while a Steering Board supervises the OHR’s actions and offers advice on a day-to-day basis.
The institution’s main task was to help and coordinate the establishment of a new state structure, also agreed upon as part of Dayton. The latter created a rather weak central state and gave many administrative competencies to two sub-state units called entities: the RS, nowadays mostly inhabited by Bosnian Serbs, and the Federation of BiH, where today Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats form the majority. Both entities have their own governments, parliaments, and courts.
