ABSTRACT
Bosnia-Herzegovina is a fractured state that was divided in 1995 into two major entities and a small enclave known as the Brcko District, in compliance with the Dayton Peace Accord, which ended open hostilities that began in 1991. e Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (FBiH) is the largest entity, comprising about 51% of the landmass, and represents a loose confederation of Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Bosnian Croats, with the former being the majority dominating 7 of the 10 cantons located within the entity. e Republic of Srpska (Republika Srpska, RS) makes up the remaining 49%, with the exception of the minimal landmass making up the sectarian-mixed Brcko District situated along the Croatian/Serbian border within the RS. One of the contentious areas of penal sanctions was the death penalty, which existed in the former Yugoslavia until the Balkan Wars of 1991-1999 broke up the Communist nation. In 2001, Serbia’s prime minister Zoran Djindjic wanted to indict the former head of state Slobodan Milosevic and his wife for murder. However, the establishment of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia discouraged the continuation of capital punishment, given that it contained no provision for the death penalty. Indeed, in October 1997, the Council of Europe Summit called for the universal abolition of the death penalty, which was to extend to all new member states of the Council of Europe, to which the former Yugoslavian states belong, eventually hoping to join as full members of the European Union (EU). Slovenia (in 1989) and
Introduction 31 Interview 33 Conclusion 47
Croatia (in 1990) abolished the death penalty for all crimes, followed by the republics of the Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2001, and then by Serbia in 2002, whereas Montenegro reiterated its stance when it separated from Serbia in 2006.
