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ABSTRACT
The incorporation of socioeconomic concerns into transitional justice has traditionally, as a result of prevailing liberal notions about dealing with the past, been both conceptually and practically difficult. This article demonstrates and accounts for these difficulties through the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country which has been characterized by a complex transition process and a far-reaching international intervention, encompassing transitional justice and peacebuilding as well as political and economic reforms. Examining the limits of international intervention in Bosnia and the marginalization of socioeconomic justice issues, the article analyses the events surrounding the protests that broke out in February 2014, and the ensuing international engagement with the protest movement. Faced with a broad-based civic movement calling for socioeconomic justice, the international community struggled to understand its claims as justice issues, framing them instead as problems to be tackled through reforms aimed at completing Bosnia’s transition towards a market economy. The operation of peacebuilding and transitional justice within the limits of neoliberal transformation is thus instrumental in explaining how and why socioeconomic justice issues become marginalized, as well as accounting for the expression of popular discontent where justice becomes an object of contestation and external intervention.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the Journal editors, the anonymous reviewers, and particularly the Special Issue editors Catherine Baker and Jelena Obradović-Wochnik for their support and insightful comments on the paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Daniela Lai is a PhD candidate in Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London. ([email protected])
Notes
1. ‘Subsistence harms’ are defined as ‘deprivations of the physical, mental and social needs of human subsistence’ (Sankey Citation2014, 122).
2. The critical peacebuilding scholarship subsequently contributed with much work on the concept of liberal peace, its assumptions and its implications (see for instance Richmond Citation2006; Chandler Citation2010).
3. Stojanov (Citation2001) explains that the privatization of state companies was conducted at the entity level in BiH. Oligarchs of the dominant ethnic groups in the area, who had accumulated wealth and political power during the war, were thus in control of the privatization process.
4. Bosnia and Herzegovina is institutionally divided into two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. The Federation is further composed of ten cantons, each with their own government.
5. Tuzla Declaration of Citizens and Workers, 7 Feb. 2014, https://bhprotestfiles.wordpress.com/2014/02/07/declaration-of-citizens-and-workers-in-tuzla-1/; Protestor Demands from Sarajevo, 9 Feb. 2014, https://bhprotestfiles.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/40/; Zenica Protestors Deliver their Demands, 10 Feb. 2014, https://bhprotestfiles.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/zenica-protestors-deliver-their-demands-to-cantonal-governmentzenica-1/; Mostar Citizens’ Demands, 10 Feb. 2014, https://bhprotestfiles.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/mostar-citizens-demands-mostar-1/ (all accessed 22 April 2016).
6. Citizen demands, 5 May 2014, Damir Karamehmedovic, https://bhprotestfiles.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/visualizing-the-plenum-demands/, accessed 22/04/2016.
7. See for instance Announcement: First Meeting of the Brčko District Citizens’ Plenum, 11 Feb. 2014, https://bhprotestfiles.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/announcement-first-meeting-of-the-citizens-plenum-of-brcko-district/, and Sarajevans Invited to First Meetings of Citizens’ Plenum, 11 Feb. 2014, https://bhprotestfiles.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/sarajevans-invited/. The Tuzla Plenum, on the other hand, remained open to participation from everyone: Announcement of the Citizens’ Plenum in Tuzla, 12 Feb. 2014, https://bhprotestfiles.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/announcement-of-the-citizens-plenum-in-tuzla/ (all accessed 22 April 2016).
8. Večer: Interview with HR Valentin Inzko, Office of the High Representative, 12 Feb. 2014, http://www.ohr.int/?p=31864&lang=en; Statement by the Ambassadors of the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council, 11 Feb. 2014, http://www.ohr.int/?p=31892&lang=en (both accessed 27 April 2016).
9. While the EU took the lead in this process, this was the result of the cooperation of those actors that usually comprise the ‘international community’ in BiH. As stated in the introduction to the Compact for Growth and Jobs, these include the IMF, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the United States and other relevant international experts.
10. EU Delegation to BiH, Forum for Prosperity and Jobs starts in Sarajevo, 26 May 2014, http://europa.ba/?p=18008 (accessed 25 May 2015).
11. Interview with international official, Sarajevo, May 2015.
12. EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Compact for Growth and Jobs, http://europa.ba/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/delegacijaEU_2014090816171626eng.pdf (accessed 10 Sept. 2015).
13. Interview with international official, Sarajevo, 30 April 2015; interview with Meliha Bajramović (Plenum Zenica), 30 July 2015.
14. Interview with anonymous activist, Sarajevo, 17 June 2014.
15. EU Delegation to BiH, Opening remarks by the Ambassador Sorensen at the Forum for Prosperity and Jobs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, http://europa.ba/?post_type=post&p=18002 (accessed 25 May 2015).
16. Interview with anonymous activist, Sarajevo, 5 May 2015; see also the interview with the Dutch Ambassador to BiH Jurriaan Kraak conducted by Nidžara Ahmetašević, http://bosniaherzegovina.nlembassy.org/news/2014/august/interview-with-ambassador-kraak.html (accessed 29 Aug. 2015).
17. EU Delegation to BiH, New Initiative of the EUSR Office in BiH Helps Stakeholders Explore Practical Reforms to Create Jobs, http://europa.ba/?p=16883 ( accessed 25 May 2015).
18. Šta znači Sporazum za Rast i Zaposljavanje? Razgovor s građanima, Istočno Sarajevo, 28 May 2015. The author was present at the event.
19. Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, Main Conclusions and Recommendations of the Conference ‘Civil Society as a Factor of Change in Bosnia and Herzegovina’, Vienna, 8–10 Sept. 2014. http://bim.lbg.ac.at/sites/files/bim/attachments/main_conclusions_and_recommendations_0.pdf (accessed 25 May 2015).
20. Interview with anonymous activist, Sarajevo, 2 June 2015.
21. Ibid.
22. Interview with anonymous activist, Sarajevo, 5 May 2015.
23. Interviews with Jasmina Čolić (activist, Jer me se tiče); interview with anonymous activist, Sarajevo, 2 June 2015.
24. Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, Summary of the Working Group discussions during the Conference ‘Civil Society as a Factor for Change in Bosnia and Herzegovina’, Sept. 2014, http://bim.lbg.ac.at/sites/files/bim/attachments/working_groups_summary_0.pdf (accessed 25 May 2015).
25. The so-called ‘Austrian Initiative’ developed in the aftermath of the Vienna Conference, without the support of the European Union Delegation. The initiative works with some of the grassroots groups that emerged during the protests, both in the Federation of BiH and in Republika Srpska, offering support to informal groups rather without specific funding conditions (Supporting informal citizens’ groups and grass-root initiatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2015, Interim Report, Nina Radović, Ludwig Boltzman Institute of Human Rights—Research Association, February 2016).