Republika Srpska

Urban struggles: Activist citizenship in South-East Europe II

Karlo Basta

While the divisions in civil society tend to reflect those in the political sphere, the events of the past several weeks could be cause for cautious optimism. Each ‘wing’ of the civil society might make a difference in its own domain (entity or canton). In order to do this, they need to sustain this level of activism, not only via protests, but through continuous organisation, awareness-raising campaigns and advocacy. It is through such activism that they can hope to make politicians in their own sub-units more accountable. In the circumstances facing Bosnian citizenry, democratisation of the state must start at the local and entity (or cantonal) level.

Bosnian Protests: Between Post-Ethnic Revival and a Stillborn Civil Society

Updated on: 28 June 2013

The Road to Sokolac

Andy Aitchison

Securing the benefits of ‘Greater-European’ citizenship for forensic psychiatric detainees in Bosnia

The fragmentation of authority in BiH is as evident in the country’s prison systems as in any other sector. State institutions have only a recent and limited role in the field of criminal detention. For now, sentenced inmates are held in entity facilities. Pre-trial inmates are held by the entities and in more recently established facilities under the authority of the Brčko Judicial Commission and the state Ministry of Justice. The entity systems house sentenced detainees from the courts of Brčko District and the state-level Court of BiH, but that should change in 2013 with the long-awaited opening of a state-level prison for pre-trial and sentenced inmates. The sharing of responsibility for the execution of penal sanctions is not unique to BiH, but in this case it is complicated by the recent history of conflict and the structures which result from the Dayton settlement.

Securing the benefits of ‘Greater-European’ citizenship for forensic psychiatric detainees in Bosnia