What has justice got to do with it? Gender and the political economy of post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

While International Financial Institutions (IFIs) play an increasingly relevant role in post-war countries, the interplay between their interventions and other aspects of post-conflict transitions, such as those related to dealing with the consequences of wartime violence, has not received much attention in the literature. This paper tackles this gap and suggests that, in post-conflict contexts, gendered forms of socioeconomic violence and injustice can be perpetuated through economic reforms led by IFIs. Overlooking justice considerations in post-war economic reforms not only reflects and reinforces a limited understanding of wartime violence and justice issues, but also entrenches gendered forms of socioeconomic injustice that had their roots in the war. A feminist approach to the study of political economy encompassing both gender and socioeconomic justice is adopted here to show how complex and overlapping forms of injustice are supported by wartime and post-war political-economic power structures. To illustrate how and why justice considerations are important for post-war economic reforms, the paper looks at the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and analyses the rationale and gendered effects of economic reforms that reorganized welfare and jobs, and promoted privatisations that accelerated deindustrialisation and economic decline.

Keywords:

• International financial institutions
• post-war justice
• feminist IPE
• Bosnia and Herzegovina

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, the participants to the panel at the 11^th Pan-European Conference in International Studies (Barcelona, September 2017) where the paper was first presented, and especially Aida Hozić and Jacqui True for their support and advice throughout the writing and revision process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is composed of two entities, the FBiH and RS, and the Brčko District. The FBiH is further divided into ten cantons with majority Bosnian Muslim (or Bosniak) or Bosnian Croat population. The entities, cantons and the Brčko District each elect their own assemblies and form governments.

2 On the memorial controversy, see Refik Hodžić Shadow of London ‘Orbit’ in Bosnia: Mittal Suppresses Memories of Omarska, Balkan Transitional Justice, 20/Apr/2012, available at <https://balkaninsight.com/2012/04/20/mittal-suppresses-memories-of-omarska/>, last accessed 27/Jul/2019.

3 Demographic data for these cities comes from the pre-war 1991 census, available at <http://fzs.ba/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Etnicka-obiljezja-stanovnistva-bilten-233.pdf> ; and the first post-war census carried out in 2013, available at <http://www.popis.gov.ba/popis2013/doc/RezultatiPopisa_BS.pdf>, both accessed 15/Jul/2019.

4 On the Stand-by arraignment see IMF (2018); on the EU-led initiative (involving the IFIs) ‘Compact for Growth and Jobs’ see the EU Delegation to BiH webpage at <https://europa.ba/?page_id=547>, last accessed 15/Jul/2019.

5 The broader study included interviews across genders and various other locations in BiH, which corroborate the evidence presented in this paper. A total of 80 in-depth interviews were carried out between 2014 and 2016.

6 Interviews were carried out with representatives of the EU Delegation (April 2015), World Bank, IMF, Office of the High Representative, OSCE and UNDP (May 2015), and a number of local and international NGOs and activists (multiple fieldtrips between 2014 and 2016).

7 Interviews with international officials in Sarajevo, 30/Apr/2015, 27/May/2015, 4/Jun/2015, 5/Aug/2015, 13/Aug/2015.

8 Interviews with international officials in Sarajevo,6/May/2015, 30/Apr/2015. See also the separation between the sectors of Justice, Home Affairs and Public Administration Reform, Economic Development, Natural Resources, Infrastructures and Social Development, Civil Society and Cross-Border Operations in the EU Mission to BiH, at <http://europa.ba/?page_id=468>, accessed 30/Jan/2018; see the UNDP separation between Justice and Security sector and Social Inclusion and Democratic Governance sector, <http://www.ba.undp.org/content/bosnia_and_herzegovina/en/home/operations/about_undp.html>, accessed 30/Jan/2018.

9 On the role of war and social breakdown in exacerbating violence see Elias and Rai 2019, p. 15; see also True 2012 and Rai, True and Tanyag (2019, forthcoming).

10 This is outlined in Article VII of the DPA. The IMF and other IFIs took part in other foundational economic reform projects, such as the transformation of the payment bureaux. See Zaum (2005).

11 See for instance the World Bank Group (2000, p.2), stating the Bank’s and IMF support for labour reforms linked to, respectively, IDA adjustment lending and a Stand-by Arrangement.

12 See EU Delegation to BiH, Compact for Growth and Jobs, <http://europa.ba/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/delegacijaEU_2014090816171626eng.pdf>, last accessed 23/Jan/2018; they are referred to as ‘ghost workers’ who are ‘just clinging on to the past’.

13 See World Bank (2000) and the Bosnian Government’s Letters of Intent of 23 February 2000, available at https://www.imf.org/external/np/loi/2000/bih/01/ and 4 December 2000 available at https://www.imf.org/external/np/loi/2000/bih/02/, both accessed 11/Jul/2019. The IMF made other welfare reforms, such as pensions and healthcare, part of its conditions for the 1998 Stand-by Arrangement, see IMF (1998).

14 Labour legislation in Bosnia falls within the competence of entities.

15 The approval of the new 2015-16 labour laws was a condition for the renewal of the IMF Stand-by arrangement. See IMF (2016).

16 Labour Law of the Federation of BiH, Official Gazette of the Federation of BiH 26/16; Labour Law of Republika Srpska, Official Gazette of Republika Srpska 1/16.

17 See OHR, Decision amending the RS Law on Pension and Disability Insurance, providing for financial feasibility and independence, 11/Dec/2000, <http://www.ohr.int/?p=68025>, accessed 30/Jan/2018.

18 Interview with international official, Sarajevo, 14/May/2015.

19 Interview, woman from Zenica, 4/Jun/2015.

20 Interview, woman from Zenica, 4/Jun/2015,8/Jun/2015.

21 Interview, woman from Prijedor, 19/Jul/2015.

22 According to Vaša Prava Prijedor, many of these claims are still pending (Interview, Prijedor, 10/Jul/2015).

23 See for instance interviews with: woman from Zenica, 8/Jun/2015; woman from Prijedor 12/Jul/2015; woman from Prijedor, 14/Jul/2015.

24 Interview, woman from Zenica, 4/Jun/2015.

25 Property in Yugoslavia was socially owned and had to be nationalized before the state could privatize it.

26 See the EBRD website at <http://www.ebrd.com/bosnia-and-herzegovina-data.html> accessed 30/Jan/2018.

27 See the EBRD website at <http://www.ebrd.com/work-with-us/projects/psd/arcelormittal-zenica-.html>, accessed 30/Jan/2018.

28 According to data from the environmental NGO Eko Forum, levels of SO2 and PM10 in the air have been constantly above the legal limit since 2004. In 2015, the annual average concentration of PM10 in Zenica was 120 μg/m3 (the legal limit set by the EU is 40 μg/m3).

29 See supra note 28. On lack of concern with air pollution, see interview with Eko Forum, 1/Jul/2015; and author’s observations from meeting ‘Conversations with the Citizens’ in East Sarajevo, May 2015, where the issue of air pollution was raised in the Q&A.

30 See the EBRD website at <http://www.ebrd.com/cs/Satellite?c=Content&cid=1395245312978&pagename=EBRD%2FContent%2FContentLayout> and <http://www.ebrd.com/work-with-us/projects/psd/usebrd-sme-procredit-bank-bosnia.html>, on loans to the Micro Enterprise Bank. See also the USAID website at <https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/bosnia/fact-sheets/usaid-assistance-bosnia-and-herzegovina>, last accessed 22 March 2018.

31 Bosnia is the only Western Balkan country not to have reached pre-2008 crisis employment levels by 2017 ( World Bank, 2017a, p. 7 )

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniela Lai

Dr Daniela Lai is Lecturer in International Relations at London South Bank University. Her research addresses the intersection of violence, justice and political economy in post-conflict contexts. She is also interested in critical methodologies and methods. Her work has recently been published in International Relations and Ethnopolitics, and her book is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.