The State of International Humanitarian Law as a Consequence of the History of South Slavs’ Nation-Building Processes

South Slavs have been repeatedly used as precedents for international humanitarian law and consequently have affected global developments: from the international concern over positions of Christians in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1870s that led to the peaceful replacement of imperial rule to the late 20th century in the NATO intervention against Serbia and Montenegro over Kosovo Albanians, which led to the creation of the newest nation-state in Europe. In addition to internal factors, the very creation of the common South Slav state was a result of international interventions, as was the dissolution of the country. The League of Nations ruling in favour of the Yugoslav complaint against Hungary in 1934 aided in developing the UN Security Council resolutions against Afghanistan in September 2001. Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1995 was a precedent for the UN sanctioned intervention, while Kosovo was a precedent for the non-sanctioned American-led intervention. Afghanistan, East Timor, Iraq, Libya are all legal consequences of interventions in the Balkans. Therefore, local history of interventions can lead to a general understanding of the development of international humanitarian law

L’émergence de la société civile dans la Bosnie-Herzégovine de d’avant-guerre

Le premier objet de ce papier est de déterminer quelles sont les idées et les organisations qui auraient pu conduire à la formation d’une société civile en Bosnie-Herzégovine. Une autre tâche est d’identifier l’origine réelle de ces idées. De même que la définition du terme “société civile” a été depuis longtemps l’objet de discussions, ses racines peuvent être, dans le cas bosniaque, l’objet d’une discussion similaire. Dans les années 1980, la crise de l’économie et du système politique youg..

National Promotion and Eurovision: from Besieged Sarajevo to the Floodlights of Europe

The Eurovision Song Contest, as an important part of the entertainment industry, has offered European countries a platform for national promotion. The original format has developed over 60 years and has come under scrutiny and criticism as allegations of block voting, politics and nationalism have been raised. It has also been argued that similarity of cultures, linguistic connections, and close national identities, rather than national interests and politics, are what actually bring countries together in this competition. This study has two focuses in an attempt to determine what role the contest has had for participating countries and how they have used it. The first focus is on analysing historical incidents at the competition when countries have attempted to politicise the contest. The second focus and the main part of the study is a thorough investigation into the organisation of the first Bosnian-Herzegovinian delegation to participate in Eurovision, their escape from besieged Sarajevo and their participation at the contest in Ireland in 1993. After taking into account the history of the contest and the specific case study of Bosnia- Herzegovina in 1993, the conclusion is that, although cultural similarities exist, the politics of national promotion do also play an important role in the competition and, in countries sending such entries, actually influences audiences at home towards stronger national pride and self-identification. Therefore, one might argue that the festival has been hijacked from the entertainment industry by political leaderships, especially those that have based their legitimacy on nationalism. Hence the success stories coming from the “New Europe”

Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina : Discrimination and the Non-Vote

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