Aiming for transitional justice? Diaspora mobilisation for youth and education in Bosnia and Herzegovina

ABSTRACT

Education is acknowledged as a component of transitional justice processes, yet details about how to implement education reform in postconflict societies are underexplored and politicized [King, Elisabeth. 2014. From Classrooms to Conflict in Rwanda. New York: Cambridge University Press]. Local and international actors often neglect the complicated nature of education reform in postconflict societies undergoing transitional justice processes [Jones, Briony. 2015. "Educating Citizens in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Experiences and Contradictions in Post-war Education Reform." In Transitional Justice and Reconciliation: Lessons from the Balkans, edited by Martina Fischer, and Olivera Simic, 193–208. New York: Routledge. Transitional Justice]. The role of the diaspora in transitional justice has been increasingly explored as a participatory transnational actor with influence and knowledge about local dynamics [Roht-Arriaza, Naomi. 2006. The Pinochet Effect: Transnational Justice in the Age of Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press; Haider, Huma. 2008. “(Re)Imagining Coexistence: Striving for Sustainable Return, Reintegration and Reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. ”International Journal of Transitional Justice 3 (1): 91–113; Young, Laura, and Rosalyn Park. 2009.“ Engaging Diasporas in Truth Commissions: Lessons from the Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission Diaspora Project.” International Journal of Transitional Justice 3 (3): 341–361; Koinova, Maria, and Dženeta Karabegović. 2017.“ Diasporas and Transitional Justice: Transnational Activism from Local to Global Levels of Engagement.” Global Networks 17 (2): 212–233]. This article bridges academic literature about diaspora engagement and transitional justice, and education and transitional justice by incorporating the role of diaspora actors in post-conflict processes. Using empirical data from multi-sited field work in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and France, it examines diaspora initiatives which aim to influence local transitional justice processes through translocal community involvement in education and youth policy. It argues that diaspora initiatives can provide alternative and intermediate solutions to the status quo in their homeland, with some potential for contributing to transitional justice and reconciliation processes. Ultimately, diaspora initiatives need support from homeland institutions in order to forward transitional justice agendas in post-conflict societies.

KEYWORDS:

• Diaspora
• transitional justice
• education
• youth
• Bosnia and Herzegovina

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for useful questions and feedback from Maria Koinova and the participants of the “Diaspora Mobilisation for Conflict and Post-conflict Reconstruction: Comparative and Contextual Dimensions” at the University of Warwick in November 2015 on earlier versions of this text and insightful comments from the anonymous JEMS reviewer which strengthened it. As always, I thank all my interviewees for sharing their time, insights and experiences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Interview with Author, Sweden, 2014.

2 Interviews with Author, Sweden and France, 2013–2014.

3 Interviews with Author, Sweden, 2014.

4 According to the 2013 Census, the ethnic makeup of the country is 50% Bosniaks, 31% Bosnian Serbs, 15% Bosnian Croats and 3% others.

5 Interviews with Author, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July and August 2013.

6 A noteable exception has been student-led activism, primarily in Jajce, in spring 2017 against the ‘two schools under one roof’ system evident in the Federation.

7 Interviews with Author, February 2014, Sweden.

8 Interview with Author, Respondent 39, February 2014, Sweden.

9 The organisation website may be found at www.our-kids.com.

10 Hayman offers a comparative perspective of two donor states’ approaches to a similar post-conflict environment. See Hayman (2010).

11 Interview with Author, February 2014, Sweden.

12 Interview with Author, Respondent 40, Paris, February 2014.

13 Interview with Author, Paris, February 2014.

14 Interview with Author, Respondent 40, Paris, February 2014.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 They are considered a minority, as they are Bosnian Muslim in a Bosnian Serb–controlled part of the country. Bosnian Serbs are considered minorities in the Federation. I did not find a similar situation among Bosnian Serbs in the Federation, particularly not with diaspora support. Several Bosniak parents stated they knew of Bosnian Serb returnees who were treated unequally in the Federation, but did not provide specific examples.

18 Interview with Author, Respondent 28, Sarajevo, BiH, October 2014.

19 Several interviewees shared this sentiment during their protests in Sarajevo.

20 An interview can be found at http://balkans.aljazeera.net/vijesti/mutabdzija-konjevic-polje-rijesicemo-u-rs-u.

21 Leading web portals, including Klix, Radio Sarajevo, Dnevni Avaz and Al Jazeera Balkans, reported on these protests widely, as did newspapers and television on a daily basis.

22 Interview with Author, Respondent 28, Sarajevo, BiH, October 2014.

23 Participant Observation, Paris, 2014.

Additional information

Funding

This research was sponsored by the European Research Council Starting Grant “Diasporas and Contested Sovereignty” number 284198.