Country Report Bosnia and Herzegovina Gergana Tzvetkova, Mila Mancheva November 2019 This Country Report offers a detailed assessment of religious diversity and violent religious radicalisation in the above-named state. It is part of a series covering 23 countries (listed below) on four continents. More basic information about religious affiliation and state-religion relations in these states is available in our Country Profiles series. This report was produced by GREASE, an EU-funded research project investigating religious diversity, secularism and religiously inspired radicalisation. Countries covered in this series: Albania, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Morocco, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Kingdom. http://grease.eui.eu The GREASE project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 770640 Bosnia and Herzegovina Country Report GREASE The EU-Funded GREASE project looks to Asia for insights on governing religious diversity and preventing radicalisation. Involving researchers from Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania, GREASE is investigating how religious diversity is governed in over 20 countries. Our work focuses on comparing norms, laws and practices that may (or may not) prove useful in preventing religious radicalisation. Our research also sheds light on how different societies cope with the challenge of integrating religious minorities and migrants. The aim is to deepen our understanding of how religious diversity can be governed successfully, with an emphasis on countering radicalisation trends. While exploring religious governance models in other parts of the world, GREASE also attempts to unravel the European paradox of religious radicalisation despite growing secularisation. We consider the claim that migrant integration in Europe has failed because second generation youth have become marginalised and radicalised, with some turning to jihadist terrorism networks. The researchers aim to deliver innovative academic thinking on secularisation and radicalisation while offering insights for governance of religious diversity. The project is being coordinated by Professor Anna Triandafyllidou from The European University Institute (EUI) in Italy. Other consortium members include Professor Tariq Modood from The University of Bristol (UK); Dr. H. A. Hellyer from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) (UK); Dr. Mila Mancheva from The Centre for the Study of Democracy (Bulgaria); Dr. Egdunas Racius from Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania); Mr. Terry Martin from the research communications agency SPIA (Germany); Professor Mehdi Lahlou from Mohammed V University of Rabat (Morocco); Professor Haldun Gulalp of The Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (Turkey); Professor Pradana Boy of Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang (Indonesia); Professor Zawawi Ibrahim of The Strategic Information and Research Development Centre (Malaysia); Professor Gurpreet Mahajan of Jawaharlal Nehru University (India); and Professor Michele Grossman of Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia). GREASE is scheduled for completion in 2022. For further information about the GREASE project please contact: Professor Anna Triandafyllidou, [email protected] http://grease.eui.eu/ GREASE - Radicalisation, Secularism and the Governance of Religion: Bringing Together European and Asian Perspectives 2 Bosnia and Herzegovina Country Report GREASE Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION 4 2. CURRENT COMPOSITION OF POPULATION, ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL FACTORS 4 3. STATE-ORGANISED RELIGION RELATIONS 8 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 8 RELIGION AND LAW IN PRESENT-DAY BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 11 INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE FOR GOVERNING RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY 12 4. VIOLENT RELIGIOUSLY INSPIRED RADICALISATION CHALLENGES 14 5. POLICIES AND PRACTICES ADDRESSING RELIGIOUS RADICALISATION 20 6. CONCLUDING REMARKS 24 REFERENCES 25 3 Bosnia and Herzegovina Country Report GREASE 1. Introduction State religion relations and religious diversity governance in present day Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are reconceptualised in the context of country’s deeply divided post- war society where the identification of religious identities with ethnic ones has traditionally been very close. With respect to the historical context, different religious groups (Catholics, Orthodox Christians or Muslims) have dominated the religious and political landscape in different historical periods. The strife of the present state of BiH is to guarantee equal rights of all religious communities, proclaiming freedom of religion, prohibiting discrimination on religious grounds, establishing autonomy of religious groups and clear separation with the state. This report is structured in four chapters. The first chapter outlines the ethno- confessional structure of the population of BiH and the attendant socio-economic characteristics. The second chapter traces the dynamics of state-religion relations and the governance of religious diversity. Chapter three aims to discuss the genesis and nature of religiously-inspired radicalisation in BiH and how is this phenomenon manifested following the violent war of 1992-1995 and in the context of global processes of radicalisation. Finally, chapter four aims to trace how the challenges of religiously- inspired radicalisation in the country are addressed by state institutions and what is the role of the Islamic community represented by the Islamic Council. 2. Current composition of population, economic and cultural factors Bosnia and Herzegovina was established as a sovereign state with the Dayton Agreement from December 1995 that ended the Bosnian war (1992-1995). The agreement was signed by BiH, Croatia and Yugoslavia and witnessed by the European Union (EU), France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US). The agreement stipulated that the independent state of BiH is composed of two parts, the largely Serb-populated Republika Srpska (RS) and the Croat-Bosniak Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federation of BiH). The district of Brčko is a self- governing administrative unit in north-eastern BiH. Annex 4 to the Dayton Agreement includes the Constitution of the new state, determined by “Bosniacs, Croats, and Serbs, as constituent peoples (along with “Others”), and citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina” (OSCE, 1995).1 The first census in BiH after the end of the war took place in 2013, organised by the Central Census Bureau of BiH and supported by the EU.2 According to the results of the census, the population of BiH amounts to 3,531,159 persons, 2,219,220 in the Federation of BiH, 1,228,423 in RS and 83,516 in the Brčko District. The annual population growth has fallen from 0.66 % in 1988 to -3.72 % in 1993; it rose to 0.23 % in 1999 but in 2018 1 This specific formulation has been problematic and often challenged as discriminatory especially towards the “Others” as defined by the Constitution. Notably, in the case Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina (ECtHR, 2009), Dervo Sejdić (of Roma ethnicity) and Jakob Finci (of Jewish ethnicity) contested before the European Court of Human Rights the constitutional arrangements on the Presidency of BiH. The plaintiffs claimed that according to the Constitution, the tripartite presidency of the country is open only to the constituent peoples, which made them ineligible to run, in a violation to the European Convention of Human Rights. The court ruled in the favour of Sejdić and Finci but still, no actions have been taken by BiH to address the decision. 2 The results, however, were released only in 2016, because of a dispute between the statistical agencies of Federation of BiH and RS. RS opposed the inclusion in the census of the “non-permanent Bosnian residents – those who were absent for 12 months prior to or after the census” (Toe, 2016). The methodology used by the Bosnian statistical agency was deemed “in line with international recommendations” according to Eurostat (Agense France-Presse, 2016). 4 Bosnia and Herzegovina Country Report GREASE dropped again to -0.82%. (The World Bank, 2019). The distribution by ethnic/national affiliation is as follows: Table 1: Population of BiH by ethnic/national affiliation, Census Results 20133 Area→ Federation RS Brčko TOTAL BiH Total BiH (%) BiH (numbers) Ethnicity↓ Bosniak 1 562 372 171 839 17 411 1 769 592 50.11 % Croat 497 883 29 645 8 859 544 780 15.43 % SerB 56 550 1 001 299 14 023 1 086 733 30.78 % Other 79 838 15 324 695 96 539 2.73 % Not 18 344 8 189 213 27 055 0.77 % declared No answer 4 233 2 127 49 6 460 0.18 % TOTAL BiH 3 531 159 Source: Agency for Statistics of BiH, 2016 Data from 1991 from the Republic of BiH (the predecessor of today’s state) allows the following comparison: TaBle 2: Comparison of BiH population 1991 and 2013 by ethnic affiliation Census→ 1991, Republic of BiH 2013, BiH Ethnicity↓ Bosniak 1 902 956 (43.5 %) 1 769 592 (50.1 %) Croat 760 852 (17.4 %) 544 780 (15.4 %) SerB 1 366 104 (31.2 %) 1 086 733 (30.8 %) Others 347 121 (7.9%) 130 054 (3.7 %) TOTAL 4 377 033 3 531 159 Source: Statistika.ba, 2016 Three conclusions become evident: i) in the years during and after the war, BiH has lost around 20 % of its population; ii) there is a significant decrease in the number of those who self-identify as “Other”; iii) although the number of those who identify as Bosniak 3 The formulation