Achieving Peace or Protecting Human Rights? Conflicts between Norms Regarding Ethnic Discrimination in the Dayton Peace Agreement (The Raoul Wallenberg ... Institute Human Rights Library, V. 23)

”Achieving peace or protecting human rights? Conflicts between norms regarding ethnic discrimination in the Dayton Peace Agreement” examines some of the legal issues pertaining to international settlements aiming at ending a war, finding political common ground between bitter enemies, and at the same time, protecting individual human rights. The author examines the Dayton Peace Agreement for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in particular the constitutional framework which on the one hand secures everyone’s human rights and protection from ethnic discrimination, but on the other hand sets up a political system which in fact discriminates on the basis of ethnicity. The author argues that it might have been consistent with international law (particularly the legal regimes of derogation and necessity) to agree on such a constitutional system at the time of the Dayton negotiations because the alternative was a high risk of continued war, but that a constitutional arrangement with clear human rights deficiencies should have been made temporary. The author points out that the ethnically-based constitutional system, for the time being, seems to prevail at the expense of the right to non-discrimination, and discusses various possibilities of altering this situation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 13 1. The Dilemma: Conflicts Between Human Rights Protection and Political Goals in Peace Settlements 13 2. Peace and Human Rights in International Law 17 2.1. The Scope and Status of the Prohibition Against the Use of Force 17 2.2. Human Rights in the UN Charter 20 2.3. Human Rights in Emergencies and War 22 3. The Dayton Peace Agreement and the Prohibition Against Ethnic Discrimination 23 3.1. Background 24 3.2. The General Framework Agreement (GFA) 25 3.3. Non-discrimination Rules in the Dayton Peace Agreement 26 3.4. Constitutional Discrimination in the Dayton Peace Agreement? 26 3.5. Contradictory Rules within the Dayton Peace Agreement? 27 3.6. Can Non-compliance with Human Rights be Justified? 28 4. The Structure and Content of the Book: An Overview 29 4.1. Author's Background 31 CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY 33 1. Introduction 33 1.1. Traditional Sources and Methods of International Law 33 1.2. A Contemporary Approach to Sources of International Law 36 1.3. The Sources and Methods Used Here 37 1.4. Subjects of International Law 40 1.5. Positivism and Natural Law 41 1.6. A Legal Positivist Approach 42 CHAPTER 3. THE DAYTON PEACE AGREEMENT – BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW 47 1. Introduction 47 2. Historic Context 47 3. The Possible "Processing" of Peace Agreements in the UN System of Collective Security 50 3.1. The Legitimate Means to Prevent or Terminate the Use of Force 50 4. The System of Collective Security and the Dayton Peace Agreement 54 4.1. The International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia (ICFY) 54 4.2. The UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) 55 4.3. Arms Embargo 57 4.4. Economic Sanctions 58 4.5. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) 58 4.6. The Security Council and the Dayton Peace Agreement 59 4.6.1. The Role of the Security Council vis-à-vis Possible Human Rights Problems in the Dayton Peace Agreement 62 5. Earlier Peace Proposals 62 5.1. The Carrington Conference 62 5.2. The Cutiliero Principles 63 5.3. The International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia 63 5.3.1. The Vance-Owen Peace Plan 64 5.3.2. The Owen-Stoltenberg Peace Plan 64 5.4. The European Union Plan 65 5.5. The Washington Agreement 65 5.6. The Contact Group for the Former Yugoslavia 66 5.7. Increased US Leadership 67 5.8. The Agreed Basic Principles 67 6. The Dayton Setting 69 6.1. The Lack of a Role for the UN 70 7. The Peace Implementation Conference and Council (PIC) 71 8. Concluding Comments 71 CHAPTER 4. THE GENERAL FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT FOR PEACE IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 73 1. Introduction 73 2. The General Framework Agreement (GFA) 73 2.1. The Parties 73 2.2. The Content 73 2.3. The Annexes to the GFA 74 2.3.1. Parties to the Annexes 74 3. The Status of the Dayton Peace Agreement 75 4. Overview of the BH Constitution 78 4.1. Legal Continuity of the State 79 4.2. Two Entities 80 4.3. The Citizenship Issues 81 4.4. Human Rights and Refugees 82 4.5. Distribution of Governmental Powers 84 4.6. Entity Responsibility 85 4.7. The Parliamentary Assembly 86 4.8. The Presidency 88 4.8.1. The "Dayton Mistake" 90 4.9. The Council of Ministers 95 4.10. The Constitutional Court 95 4.11. The Relationship to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) 97 4.12. Amendment Procedure 98 4.13. Entry into Force 98 5. Overview over the Human Rights Annex (Annex 6) 99 5.1. The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman 99 5.2. The Human Rights Chamber 100 6. Concluding Comments 102 CHAPTER 5. PROTECTION AGAINST ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 105 1. Introduction 105 2. Human Rights in Previous Peace Proposals 105 3. Structure of the Human Rights Protection in the Dayton Peace Agreement 106 3.1. Article II of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina 107 3.2. Agreement on Human Rights 109 4. Article II (2): Direct Application and Priority of the ECHR and Protocols 110 4.1. Interpretation of the Term "All Other Law" 111 4.2. The Relationship between ECHR and Potentially "Higher Standards" in Other Instruments 112 4.3. Which Protocols are Covered? 113 4.4. Non-discrimination Protection in the ECHR 114 4.5. Discrimination in the Exercise of Political Rights under the ECHR and Article 3 of Protocol 1 115 5. Article II (4): Non-discrimination in other Instruments 116 5.1. Non-discrimination in the Human Rights Agreement 119 5.2. ICCPR 122 5.2.1. Accessory Non-discrimination Clause 122 5.2.2. General Non-discrimination Clause 122 5.2.3. Political Rights in the ICCPR 125 5.3. ICERD 126 5.3.1. Definition of Racial Discrimination 126 5.3.2. The Rights Catalogue 128 5.3.3. Political Rights in ICERD 128 5.4. Other Instruments Applicable in Bosnia and Herzegovina 129 5.5. The Non-discrimination Grounds 130 5.5.1. Race 131 5.5.2. Colour 132 5.5.3. Language 133 5.5.4. Religion 133 5.5.5. National Origin 134 5.5.6. Ethnic Origin and Descent 134 5.5.7. Association with a National Minority 136 5.5.8. Other Status 138 5.6. The Human Rights Chamber and the Non-discrimination Criteria 138 5.7. Concluding Comments 141 6. Peremptory Norms of General International Law 142 6.1. Background 142 6.2. The Jus Cogens Requirements 144 6.2.1. Prohibition Against Ethnic Discrimination as a Jus Cogens Rule? 145 6.3. Concluding Comments 148 CHAPTER 6. ETHNIC DIFFERENTIATION RULES IN THE BH CONSTITUTION 149 1. Introduction 149 2. Constituent Peoples 149 2.1. The "Constituent Peoples" Decision from the BH Constitutional Court 151 2.2. The Decision on Amendment of the Entity Constitutions by the High Representative 154 3. The House of Peoples and the House of Representatives 154 3.1. The Parliaments of the Entities and the Selection Process 156 3.1.1. Constitutional Discrimination of Serbs? 156 3.2. Competencies of the Parliamentary Assembly 158 3.2.1. The Decision Making Process 159 3.2.2. "Ethnic Veto" on Parliamentary Decisions 160 4. The Presidency 162 4.1. Competencies of the Presidency 163 4.2. The Decision-making Process 163 5. Consequences of the Constitutional Provisions on Ethnicity 166 5.1. Exclusion of "Others" 166 5.2. Exclusion of Constituent Peoples in the "Wrong" Entity 169 6. Concluding Comments 171 CHAPTER 7. THE SCOPE OF CONFLICT BETWEEN THE NON-DISCRIMINATION RULES AND THE RULES AUTHORISING ETHNIC DIFFERENTIATION 173 1. Introduction 173 2. ECHR: Article 3 of Protocol 1 175 2.1. The Second Chamber 176 2.2. The Exclusion Criteria 179 3. ICCPR: Article 25 183 3.1. The Right to Take Part in the Conduct of Public Affairs 184 3.2. The Right to Vote and to Stand for Election 185 3.2.1. The Parliamentary Assembly 185 3.2.2. The Presidency 190 3.3. ICERD Article 5 191 4. Derogation 192 5. Concluding Comments 192 CHAPTER 8. POSSIBLE JUSTIFICATIONS FOR ETHNIC DIFFERENTIATION IN EMERGENCIES 195 1. Introduction 195 2. Derogation 196 2.1. State of Emergency 199 2.1.1. Was there a State of Emergency in Bosnia and Herzegovina? 203 2.2. Were the Ethnic Requirements Measures? 204 2.3. Which Rights May Not Be Derogated from? 204 2.4. Discriminatory Measures 206 2.4.1. Ethnic Discrimination and Derogation in the ICCPR 206 2.4.2. Ethnic Discrimination and Derogation in the ECHR 208 2.4.3. The Non-discrimination Criteria 211 2.4.4. The Term Solely 217 2.5. The Consistency Requirement 218 2.5.1. A Customary Right to Derogation? 221 2.6. Strictly Required by the Exigencies of the Situation 224 3. Necessity 229 3.1. Introduction 229 3.2. Customary Human Rights Obligations 230 3.3. Customary Basis for Necessity 232 3.4. Circumstances Precluding Wrongfulness in the Draft Articles on State Responsibility 234 3.5. Article 25 of the Draft Articles on State Responsibility 236 3.5.1. The Balancing Requirement 240 3.5.2. The Time Aspect 248 4. Concluding Comments 249 CHAPTER 9. POSSIBLE WAYS OF ADDRESSING ETHNIC DIFFERENTIATION 251 1. Introduction 251 2. The Priority Rule 251 2.1. Constitutional Amendment by the Parliamentary Assembly 253 2.2. Judgement by the Constitutional Court 253 2.3. Judgement by the Human Rights Chamber 255 2.4. Decision by the High Representative 256 2.5. New Negotiations by the Parties to the Dayton Peace Agreement 259 2.6. Decision by the European Court of Human Rights 260 2.7. The Human Rights Committee 261 3. Concluding Comments 261 CHAPTER 10. CONCLUDING REMARKS 263 BIBLIOGRAPHY 267 TABLE OF CASES 275 ANNEX I 279 ANNEX II 295 INDEX 305 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 5 1. The Dilemma: Conflicts Between Human Rights Protection and Political Goals in Peace Settlements......Page 13 2.1. The Scope and Status of the Prohibition Against the Use of Force......Page 17 2.2. Human Rights in the UN Charter......Page 20 2.3. Human Rights in Emergencies and War......Page 22 3. The Dayton Peace Agreement and the Prohibition Against Ethnic Discrimination......Page 23 3.1. Background......Page 24 3.2. The General Framework Agreement (GFA)......Page 25 3.4. Constitutional Discrimination in the Dayton Peace Agreement?......Page 26 3.5. Contradictory Rules within the Dayton Peace Agreement?......Page 27 3.6. Can Non-compliance with Human Rights be Justified?......Page 28 4. The Structure and Content of the Book: An Overview......Page 29 4.1. Author's Background......Page 31 1.1. Traditional Sources and Methods of International Law......Page 33 1.2. A Contemporary Approach to Sources of International Law......Page 36 1.3. The Sources and Methods Used Here......Page 37 1.4. Subjects of International Law......Page 40 1.5. Positivism and Natural Law......Page 41 1.6. A Legal Positivist Approach......Page 42 2. Historic Context......Page 47 3.1. The Legitimate Means to Prevent or Terminate the Use of Force......Page 50 4.1. The International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia (ICFY)......Page 54 4.2. The UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR)......Page 55 4.3. Arms Embargo......Page 57 4.5. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)......Page 58 4.6. The Security Council and the Dayton Peace Agreement......Page 59 5.1. The Carrington Conference......Page 62 5.3. The International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia......Page 63 5.3.2. The Owen-Stoltenberg Peace Plan......Page 64 5.5. The Washington Agreement......Page 65 5.6. The Contact Group for the Former Yugoslavia......Page 66 5.8. The Agreed Basic Principles......Page 67 6. The Dayton Setting......Page 69 6.1. The Lack of a Role for the UN......Page 70 8. Concluding Comments......Page 71 2.2. The Content......Page 73 2.3.1. Parties to the Annexes......Page 74 3. The Status of the Dayton Peace Agreement......Page 75 4. Overview of the BH Constitution......Page 78 4.1. Legal Continuity of the State......Page 79 4.2. Two Entities......Page 80 4.3. The Citizenship Issues......Page 81 4.4. Human Rights and Refugees......Page 82 4.5. Distribution of Governmental Powers......Page 84 4.6. Entity Responsibility......Page 85 4.7. The Parliamentary Assembly......Page 86 4.8. The Presidency......Page 88 4.8.1. The "Dayton Mistake"......Page 90 4.10. The Constitutional Court......Page 95 4.11. The Relationship to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)......Page 97 4.13. Entry into Force......Page 98 5.1. The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman......Page 99 5.2. The Human Rights Chamber......Page 100 6. Concluding Comments......Page 102 2. Human Rights in Previous Peace Proposals......Page 105 3. Structure of the Human Rights Protection in the Dayton Peace Agreement......Page 106 3.1. Article II of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina......Page 107 3.2. Agreement on Human Rights......Page 109 4. Article II (2): Direct Application and Priority of the ECHR and Protocols......Page 110 4.1. Interpretation of the Term "All Other Law"......Page 111 4.2. The Relationship between ECHR and Potentially "Higher Standards" in Other Instruments......Page 112 4.3. Which Protocols are Covered?......Page 113 4.4. Non-discrimination Protection in the ECHR......Page 114 4.5. Discrimination in the Exercise of Political Rights under the ECHR and Article 3 of Protocol 1......Page 115 5. Article II (4): Non-discrimination in other Instruments......Page 116 5.1. Non-discrimination in the Human Rights Agreement......Page 119 5.2.2. General Non-discrimination Clause......Page 122 5.2.3. Political Rights in the ICCPR......Page 125 5.3.1. Definition of Racial Discrimination......Page 126 5.3.3. Political Rights in ICERD......Page 128 5.4. Other Instruments Applicable in Bosnia and Herzegovina......Page 129 5.5. The Non-discrimination Grounds......Page 130 5.5.1. Race......Page 131 5.5.2. Colour......Page 132 5.5.4. Religion......Page 133 5.5.6. Ethnic Origin and Descent......Page 134 5.5.7. Association with a National Minority......Page 136 5.6. The Human Rights Chamber and the Non-discrimination Criteria......Page 138 5.7. Concluding Comments......Page 141 6.1. Background......Page 142 6.2. The Jus Cogens Requirements......Page 144 6.2.1. Prohibition Against Ethnic Discrimination as a Jus Cogens Rule?......Page 145 6.3. Concluding Comments......Page 148 2. Constituent Peoples......Page 149 2.1. The "Constituent Peoples" Decision from the BH Constitutional Court......Page 151 3. The House of Peoples and the House of Representatives......Page 154 3.1.1. Constitutional Discrimination of Serbs?......Page 156 3.2. Competencies of the Parliamentary Assembly......Page 158 3.2.1. The Decision Making Process......Page 159 3.2.2. "Ethnic Veto" on Parliamentary Decisions......Page 160 4. The Presidency......Page 162 4.2. The Decision-making Process......Page 163 5.1. Exclusion of "Others"......Page 166 5.2. Exclusion of Constituent Peoples in the "Wrong" Entity......Page 169 6. Concluding Comments......Page 171 1. Introduction......Page 173 2. ECHR: Article 3 of Protocol 1......Page 175 2.1. The Second Chamber......Page 176 2.2. The Exclusion Criteria......Page 179 3. ICCPR: Article 25......Page 183 3.1. The Right to Take Part in the Conduct of Public Affairs......Page 184 3.2.1. The Parliamentary Assembly......Page 185 3.2.2. The Presidency......Page 190 3.3. ICERD Article 5......Page 191 5. Concluding Comments......Page 192 1. Introduction......Page 195 2. Derogation......Page 196 2.1. State of Emergency......Page 199 2.1.1. Was there a State of Emergency in Bosnia and Herzegovina?......Page 203 2.3. Which Rights May Not Be Derogated from?......Page 204 2.4.1. Ethnic Discrimination and Derogation in the ICCPR......Page 206 2.4.2. Ethnic Discrimination and Derogation in the ECHR......Page 208 2.4.3. The Non-discrimination Criteria......Page 211 2.4.4. The Term Solely......Page 217 2.5. The Consistency Requirement......Page 218 2.5.1. A Customary Right to Derogation?......Page 221 2.6. Strictly Required by the Exigencies of the Situation......Page 224 3.1. Introduction......Page 229 3.2. Customary Human Rights Obligations......Page 230 3.3. Customary Basis for Necessity......Page 232 3.4. Circumstances Precluding Wrongfulness in the Draft Articles on State Responsibility......Page 234 3.5. Article 25 of the Draft Articles on State Responsibility......Page 236 3.5.1. The Balancing Requirement......Page 240 3.5.2. The Time Aspect......Page 248 4. Concluding Comments......Page 249 2. The Priority Rule......Page 251 2.2. Judgement by the Constitutional Court......Page 253 2.3. Judgement by the Human Rights Chamber......Page 255 2.4. Decision by the High Representative......Page 256 2.5. New Negotiations by the Parties to the Dayton Peace Agreement......Page 259 2.6. Decision by the European Court of Human Rights......Page 260 3. Concluding Comments......Page 261 CHAPTER 10. CONCLUDING REMARKS......Page 263 BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 267 TABLE OF CASES......Page 275 ANNEX I......Page 279 ANNEX II......Page 295 INDEX......Page 305 'achieving Peace Or Protecting Human Rights? Conflicts Between Norms Regarding Ethnic Discrimination In The Dayton Peace Agreement' Examines Some Of The Legal Issues Pertaining To International Settlements Aiming At Ending A War, Finding Political Common Ground Between Bitter Enemies, And At The Same Time, Protecting Individual Human Rights. The Author Examines The Dayton Peace Agreement For Bosnia And Herzegovina, And In Particular The Constitutional Framework Which On The One Hand Secures Everyone's Human Rights And Protection From Ethnic Discrimination, But On The Other Hand Sets Up A Political System Which In Fact Discriminates On The Basis Of Ethnicity.--book Jacket. Ch. 1. Introduction -- Ch. 2. Methodology -- Ch. 3. The Dayton Peace Agreement -- Background And Overview -- Ch. 4. The General Framework Agreement For Peace In Bosnia And Herzegovina -- Ch. 5. Protection Against Ethnic Discrimination In Bosnia And Herzegovina -- Ch. 6. Ethnic Differentiation Rules In The Bh Constitution -- Ch. 7. The Scope Of Conflict Between The Non-discrimination Rules And The Rules Authorising Ethnic Differentiation -- Ch. 8. Possible Justifications For Ethnic Differentiation In Emergencies -- Ch. 9. Possible Ways Of Addressing Ethnic Differentiation -- Ch. 10. Concluding Remarks. By Gro Nystuen. Originally Presented As The Author's Thesis (doctoral)--university Of Oslo, 2004. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 255-261) And Index. This book is a legal analysis of the Dayton Peace Agreement and its inherent contradictions between human rights and an ethnically based political system. As a member of the EU delegation in Dayton, the author explains some of the backgrounds for the peace agreement and she points to its potential for political reform.