By signing the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union in 2008, Bosnia and Herzegovina began the process of EU accession. The translation of EU legislation into the local language is the first step toward EU accession. However, just as BiH has always been a multi-ethnic society, it is also a multi-lingual country delaying the EU accession process. The newly defined languages have become an integral part of the respective national/ethnic identities in post-war Bosnia, and are now a question of patriotism and national belonging. Even the current education system in BiH is based on the recognition of the right to education in one’s mother tongue. The acquis consists…

Following the appointment of the three State Ombudsman in December 2008, a team of Populari analysts have researched what this reform has led to. Considering the importance of human rights protection mechanisms in Bosnia, we believe that a reform of this scale serves as a good example for analyzing the overall picture of how reforms are implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The main purpose of the Ombudsman institutions reform was to achieve the same standards of human rights protection mechanisms in both of Bosnia’s entities; to reduce the costs of having three separate Ombudsman institutions; and to avoid the risk of overlapping competencies. On the basis of these arguments, the…