Peace in every part of the world has no alternative and we must and should continue to work together and persistently on this, said the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željko Komšić, in his address to the United Nations General Assembly.
“However, reality and what is happening today in different parts of our planet clearly show us that peace in the world is often not in the interest of certain geopolitical actors, for whom conflict or war is a means to realize their political and economic interests, which largely diverge from the goals set out in the Charter of the United Nations,” Komšić emphasized, adding that international law is not applied equally to all states.
The theme of this year’s session is “Better Together – 80 Years for Peace, Development and Human Rights,” and Komšić emphasized that today we are witnessing the fact that a certain armed conflict is being deliberately and planned to be provoked, and then through the use of significant armed force, which a state, with a smaller or weaker armed force, cannot resist.
“After that, the attacked state is required to sit down at the negotiating table and sign the renunciation of parts of its territory, supposedly in the name of peace but actually in the name of force… The United Nations Charter allows changing state borders, but only by voluntary agreement between states, but without the use of armed force or political pressure backed by armed force,” he stated.
As he said, if armed force is used to force the other side to agree to an imposed agreement in which it loses part of its territory, then there is no good and sincere will, but only coercion, which contradicts several acts of international law.
“In this particular case, I am thinking of Ukraine and the pressures it is going through as a sovereign state, in which it is being asked to give up parts of its territory in order to achieve supposedly lasting and sustainable peace. Are we, in this particular case, participants in a change in the world order, in which peace is not set as the ultimate goal, but war and armed force appear as a legitimate means to achieve the political goals of major geopolitical actors?”, stated the Chairman of the Presidency of BiH during his speech.
He emphasized that changing interstate borders through the use of armed force, which creates political pressure with the aim of making a particular state give up parts of its territory, creates a dangerous precedent in international law, which can easily become the rule, and this, he added, ultimately means that we would live in an unstable world in which peace no longer has value.
“An equally undesirable situation today is being experienced in the Gaza Strip, where such violence is being perpetrated against the local population, the form of which indicates the existence of multiple elements of genocide, as established in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. As a reminder, it is necessary to point out that genocide, in addition to representing the physical liquidation or removal of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group from a certain territory, can also be committed in the event that such difficult living conditions are consciously imposed on that same national, ethnic, racial or religious group, which threaten to ultimately completely destroy it in a certain territory,” stated Komšić.
According to him, the people of Palestine are facing two elements of genocide, prescribed by the aforementioned Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, where a part of the world’s political public is closing its eyes and keeping quiet about this immensely terrible fact.
“There is no political interest or even economic interest driven by the intention to exploit natural resources, such as oil or natural gas in that part of the Mediterranean, that can justify such a high level of genocidal violence against the local Palestinian population. In addition to the fact that such violence is unjustified and unacceptable, the silence, and occasionally even approval, that comes from various political circles in the world is equally unacceptable. What kind of peace, development or protection of human rights can we even talk about if such violence, violence with forms of genocide against the Palestinian people, is allowed?” he said.
Democracy in BiH is almost non-existent
Komšić then spoke about the current situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, recalling that 30 years ago there was a war in our country, and that at that time the United Nations formed a peacekeeping military force called UNPROFOR.
“Of course, there were also positive examples of UNPROFOR’s activities, which certainly should not be forgotten and for which we are sincerely grateful. But, unfortunately, a stain remained on that United Nations mission, because some UNPROFOR commanders did not want to activate air strikes in order to prevent ethnic cleansing, and especially the genocide committed in Srebrenica in July 1995,” he said.
He also recalled that a little over a year ago, the United Nations adopted a Resolution on the genocide committed in Srebrenica, which, as he said, he considers a major step forward and an important document, not only for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also much more widely, because the strength of that Resolution lies in its intention to prevent the possible commission of some new genocides, which could happen anywhere in the world.
As he said, even then, BiH was faced with lobbying from several countries not to adopt such a Resolution, but it was nevertheless adopted, which created a new environment for preventive action through the culture of remembrance so that genocide, as the most terrible war crime, would never happen again.
He referred to the signing of the Dayton-Paris Peace Agreement, which brought peace, but, as he said, at the same time created such a sui generis political system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which today, 30 years after its creation, poses a problem for the normal functioning of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Such a political system does not contain democracy, but some deviant form of it, unrecorded in practice anywhere in the world, in which ethnicity is put in the foreground and thus completely negates basic human rights, and at the same time undermines democracy to such an extent that it almost no longer exists,” Komšić stated.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, he emphasized, has clearly opted for democracy and the transition from the previous political system to a new, democratic political system.
“But this is continuously prevented from happening to us through the elements of the political system established by the Dayton-Paris Agreement… Nowadays, Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing an embargo on democracy, which certain actors from the international community are trying to ensure through their political and diplomatic activities,” said the Chairman of the Presidency, adding:
“How else can we explain such activity by that part of the international community, which is trying in various ways to ensure this incidental political system in which the minority governs the majority, destroying one of the fundamental principles of democracy, which requires such a system in which, in fact, the political majority should govern its state. Although such actors describe this as, allegedly, the distribution of political power between ethnic communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at its root it undermines democracy so much that it almost no longer exists in my country, because there is something simply called ethnocracy in which the political minority governs the state, because this current deviant political system enables it to do so.”
Small countries can only gain democracy to the extent that large countries allow them
He also recalled a United Nations document, called the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees, among other things: “…to vote and to be elected at periodic elections held by universal and equal suffrage, by secret ballot, with the guarantee of the free expression of the will of each voter…”, which, as he said, is unfortunately not allowed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite great efforts by the international community that seeks to preserve discrimination, deny democracy, which results in a lack of the rule of law and ultimately insufficient and almost no protection of individual human rights.
“As a logical conclusion, the idea that democracy, as well as the right to defend the country, is a privilege whose application is determined and enabled by political elites from larger and richer countries, while small and poorer countries can gain democracy only to the extent that the larger and richer countries allow them to do so, is certainly not an expression of equality or equity, which we should all strive for today,” he said.
He spoke about the equality of every individual in his country and beyond, and especially his or her right to participate equally and according to their own wishes in every aspect of social life in their country.
“Every issue of human rights protection begins with the fight against discrimination or any form of inequality of individuals in all their rights guaranteed by international law documents, and as a logical continuation are documents or laws in different countries. Discrimination in any form is prohibited by international law acts, but, unfortunately, we very often encounter situations in which discrimination is silenced, and after silence, even encouraged. Speaking from the perspective of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we have five judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, which have established the existence of discrimination against citizens of BiH on the basis of their ethnic origin or place of residence. Some of the political elites in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as part of the international community present in BiH do not want to accept this and are implementing it through amendments to the constitution,” Komšić emphasized, adding:
“With the failure to implement the above five judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, this sixth judgment in the case in which the rejection of ethno-territorial discrimination is requested, which was overturned thanks to pressure, ‘donations’ and similar actions by certain countries as well as by the person who is authorized by the peace treaty to implement that treaty and to protect all aspects of that treaty, including all acts of international law that speak about human rights, lead us to difficult questions and even more difficult answers.”
Peace and human rights are not a privilege
He emphasized that only through consistency and principled insistence on the protection of peace can conditions be created for the unhindered development of societies in the member states of the United Nations.
“Without this consistency in these issues, we will once again be just a group expressing concern over deviant phenomena in the world, such as wars, violent border changes, genocide and war crimes, and the denial of human rights, without actually doing anything more than expressing concern. The consistency to which I refer means complete determination to oppose various deviant phenomena in the world, through the tools provided to us by international law,” said Komšić.
He called on the member states of the UN not to discriminate between countries, dividing them into large and small, rich and poor, but to work together as an organization to actively seek and provide solutions to all open issues that arise in the world.
“Peace is not a privilege, peace is the obligation of all of us to ensure it at all times and in all places. Likewise, human rights are not a privilege, but a permanent civilizational obligation, which we must continuously fulfill. It is certainly a permanent challenge, which generations before us faced and which generations that come after us will face. Our mission is to leave them a better world than it is now, and for such a goal, persistent and continuous active work is needed,” said the Chairman of the Presidency of BiH, Željko Komšić.
