“Dedicated to peace, justice, tolerance and reconciliation…”

Given the painful experience of conflict which divided a population that had been living in peace for centuries beforehand, the Framer of the Constitution held that the obligation was to particularly express in the Constitution a dedication to peace, justice, tolerance and reconciliation. According to line 5 of the Preamble, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as an equal member of the international community, is obliged to respect the objectives and principles of the United Nations, such as the promotion of world peace and international security – which means external peace, while line 2 of the Preamble primarily stipulates the obligation to develop internal peace, a value and “leitmotiv” for a peaceful co-existence within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Such an obligation, i.e., dedication can barely be found in other constitutions. Its obvious aim is to encourage those to which it refers to overcome the consequences of a horrible armed conflict. The basis of this line is an elementary and universally valid principle implying that there is no State without internal peace. It is precisely in pluralist societies that the (internal) peace, justice and tolerance as basic values of coexistence are expressed in the constitutional norms on state monopoly of force and the protection of human rights and the rule of law. So the Framer of the Constitution stipulated the obligation of cooperating with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (Article II.8) in order to support the reconciliation process. Likewise, Article IX.1 stipulates that no person who is serving a sentence imposed by the ICTY, and no person who is under indictment by the ICTY and who has failed to comply with an order to appear before the it may stand as a candidate or hold any appointive, elective, or other public office.

Another measure aiming at reconciliation and overcoming the past through criminal proceedings is the establishment of a Special Department for War Crimes within the Court of BiH on 9 March 2005.¹²¹ A significant contribution to the search for truth and thus reconciliation was given by various commissions for missing persons, particularly the Republika Srpska Commission for Investigation of the Events in and around Srebrenica between 10 and 19 July 1995, which was established in accordance with a Decision taken by the Human Rights Chamber in March 2003. Following initial obstacles which the institutions of the Republika Srpska put in the way of the Commission’s activities, in June 2004 the Commission, finally, following significant interventions by the High Representative, published a serious report on the aforementioned events.¹²² However, all efforts invested in the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission failed due to the lack of political will but also due to a concern of the victims that such a commission could have an unfavourable impact on the activities of the prosecution bodies or prevent such activities.¹²³