YouSaid · the spoken record

Željko Komšić

lines on the record: 139
first: 2009-09-24
most recent: 2023-09-24
sittings or episodes: 6
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I am aware of the existence of other parts of the international community, which for their own geopolitical reasons will offer resistance in order to keep Bosnia and Herzegovina and the entire region of the Western Balkans in a continuous state of destabilization and tension. Such people do not want democracy, but rather ethnocracy, disorder and violence. Lastly. I can say with certainty that Bosnia and Herzegovina has become a place in which democracy and its values are defended. And there are only two sides in that regard — one that is in favour of democracy and its values and the other that is opposed to democracy because its goal is the establishment of autocratic systems that are undemocratic in character.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“By rejecting the discriminatory ethnic concept, we are simultaneously rejecting a system dominated by nepotism and corruption and thus bring our society into the ranks of democratic and mature societies. Then we will become a society and a country that can actively participate in world processes, based on the fundamental principles on which the current world order and what we call the international community. The transition process of our society can and should be relatively short, because the equality of all people is the basic premise of every modern democratic society. In that respect we count on the support of that part of the international community that can help us to that end.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“I believe everyone shares my opinion that, in societies dominated by inequality, one cannot be a meaningful participant in promoting ideas of self-sustainable development through building trust and global solidarity for all. First, we must reform our society so that it can understand the importance of solidarity for everyone, with a system that provides full equality and offers solidarity towards others on an equal footing. In the conclusion of this address. I would like to emphasize that Bosnia and Herzegovina will actively work on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We will work on building trust and solidarity for all.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Only when civic political representation is accepted in Bosnia and Herzegovina, through the implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and when, in parallel, the neighbourhood attacks on the sovereignty of the country stop — only then will we be able to participate in projects, such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in our full capacity and more efficiently as an equal participant and actor of all planned activities. When that time comes, we. as a country, will be ready and equipped to take on all challenges related to self-sustainable development, to build our mutual social trust as a society of equals and to be an active participant in building trust on a global level.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Disregard for the judgments of international courts, as voiced by the Prime Minister of a neighbouring country, is reminiscent of the attitudes towards international law that Vladimir Putin has adopted in the case of Ukraine. However, this is not only about having a negative attitude towards the international standards of the United Nations, but also about a neighbour-led policy towards Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We must use this opportunity to draw the attention of the United Nations to something that, in my opinion — and I am sorry to say this — is the very uncivilized stance of the Government and the Prime Minister of our neighbouring country, which have rejected the latest judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Kovacevic case and have defended the very principles rejected in said judgment, such as the political principle of legitimate representation based on ethnicity, which is a generator of inequality among the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and a means by which the neighbours undermine the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina. That was done in such a way that it could be qualified as interference in the internal affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“But those judgments also take away an effective mechanism for violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the hands of potentially aggressive politics of the neighbouring countries. In short, that means that we. in Bosnia and Herzegovina, will have to change the entire societal paradigm and shift from ethnic political representation to civic political representation, which is the standard in the democratic world.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Such scenarios for Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be implemented, through political means this time, in times of peace, while continuously asking for support from various parts of the international community. At the same time, regardless of the aforementioned scenarios, our obligation is to create internal prerequisites for building a society of equal people and equal citizens as one of the basic tools that will enable us to avoid future conflicts. Contained within the judgments of the eminent courts that deal with the protection of human rights, such as the European Court of Human Rights, there is a valuable resource for building a stable society in which the risk of internal conflict is reduced to a minimum.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“I wish to add another important element that is indispensable in building trust for self-sustainable development — creating a system of full human rights, which ultimately offers a society of equality among people and citizens and. therefore, of equal opportunities, with possibilities for everyone. Without a system of equals, it will be difficult to build trust in such a system, especially in a still postwar society, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina. That is particularly true, considering that our society has suffered aggression from our western and eastern neighbouring countries, a direct consequence of which were atrocious war crimes and even the crime of genocide.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We therefore expect the support of actors from the international community, even though they occasionally resort to undemocratic tools for their own interests, like completely denying the possibility of developing democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Of course, we are fully aware that there are a number of United Nations Member States whose history and historical context make them uninterested in democracy and its development. On the other hand, some indicators tell us that over two thirds of the Member States are oriented towards democracy and its development. My point of view is therefore oriented in that direction.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The latest interventions of the international representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, such as that of the High Representative, through legal violence and the suspension of the entity Constitution for 24 hours, which is an inconceivable precedent in the democratic world, did not remove obstacles to the normal functioning of the State, but rather strengthened the undemocratic ethnic principle and deepened the discrimination of citizens in the Constitution and the electoral law. Democracy is the most important segment for building trust, both in our countries and globally. In order to create the prerequisites for self-sustainable development, it is very important that transitions in societies from former totalitarian, autocratic systems to systems based on full democracy end as soon as possible.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“In that connection, allow me to ask an important question — how is it possible to build and achieve trust that will lead to achieving prerequisites for development when we do not actually have enough democracy in our country, when our right to democracy is being taken away and when an embargo to democracy is being imposed upon us. thus generating great uncertainty among citizens and often prompting them to leave the country?”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“In addition, the ethnic system of exercising power in my country continuously creates space for nepotism and corruption in all segments of society, especially in Government institutions. As a consequence of the ethnic system of exercising power, we have nepotism in the selection of people to perform the most important political and economic jobs. The ethnic political system in my country generates and encourages nepotism and corruption the most, and nepotism and corruption are the elements that are most harmful to social cohesion and trust within a society. That is why. for decades, we have not been able to create a society of equals and. with that, a society of equal opportunities, because employment through family connections and corruption pertaining to the most important positions make one lose hope in positive future prospects.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“If the United Nations wishes to preserve peace in the Western Balkans, then it should support those who have not violated democratic and civilizational norms, have not committed genocide, were not part of joint criminal enterprises, did not destroy people’s lives due to their ethnicity, did not destroy other people’s temples or shrines and did not advocate revanchism or revenge. If such support is absent, then the responsibility and blame for destabilization does not lie with us. who will certainly not calmly and idly observe a new attempt to destroy our Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the fundamental problem of Bosnia and Herzegovina lies in the inequality of citizens within the political and electoral system, the result of which is a system of ethnic governance in the country, a system that is destined to be conflictual. in itself.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We. who represent the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the United Nations, believe that this will not bring about stability or progress in the Western Balkans. Our neighbours cannot divide Bosnia and Herzegovina among themselves without entering into mutual conflict. We will certainly not allow the division and disappearance of our thousand-year-old State at any cost no matter what anyone thinks about it. That is why we believe that it is in the interest of the United Nations, if peace is to be preserved in the Western Balkans, to support the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its institutions.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“One can see that this a problem, and it extends to the entire region of the Western Balkans, where there are different ideas, plans and intentions to change the internationally recognized borders and to reorganize the region into something that has no connection with democracy. For such activities and policies, neighbouring countries very often have, at first glance, surprising and unexpected support from countries that we consider to be democratic liberal States and societies, but certainly also from those that are not democratic and that we recognize today as aggressor States with authoritarian regimes. Regretfully, there are many, both in the East and the West, who believe that their barely hidden support for those who want to completely control and ultimately divide Bosnia and Herzegovina will bring stability to the Western Balkans.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Our two neighbours, through the ethnic communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to which they strive to claim every right, even 27 years after the aggression they carried out over Bosnia and Herzegovina, are in that manner attacking the sovereignty of our country, which makes it almost impossible to develop the democracy of Bosnia and Herzegovina. That practice also violates the minimum of inter-State trust because, unfortunately, our neighbours are not sincerely investing energy with the goal of building inter-State cooperation but are rather investing energy in weakening our State.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The distribution of political and social power is already guaranteed to them in advance by the system itself, a system based on ethnicity. Our current political system is skilfully used by our Eastern and Western neighbours and by ethnic communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to which they claim national rights. They are running Bosnia and Herzegovina not with the primary aim of helping the members of those ethnic communities, but with the aim of dividing Bosnia and Herzegovina or making it meaningless as a State.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Such a system, which guarantees participation in Government to certain political actors and their ethnically based political parties, has the form of former and current totalitarian systems, in which power is exercised in an autocratic manner through autocratically inspired political actors. As a result of that unfinished political system, the development of the country is slow, and such politics obstruct what, in my opinion, is one of the key goals of my country — its path to membership in larger supranational systems, such as the European Union or NATO. The irremovability or particularly difficult replaceability of the authorities creates such an environment where even the authorities themselves no longer work for the benefit of their citizens, because they feel that there is no need to do so.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“On the contrary, you have ethnically and politically suitable staff who can hardly be expected to lead the overall progress of the country. That value system has been in place for a very long time. In such a system, the key jobs are not performed by the best and most qualified people, but by the politically and ethnically suitable ones. The current political system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, based exclusively on ethnic and then on political affiliation, completely degrades democracy as an important principle for creating an environment with equal opportunities for all people.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“When we considered what our people referred to in terms of the basic shortcomings with regard to the prospects in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we saw that it was specifically the fact that the country’s political system is not a complete democracy, but rather a form of ethnocracy or a system in which elections for Government institutions, the exercise of power and the distribution of jobs in the State, even in the real sector, are primarily based on membership of a particular ethnicity as a prerequisite. In such a system, one usually does not have the best people in key positions — people who. with their knowledge and abilities, can build a political, economic and social system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“From the point of view of my country. Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is very easy to provide additional arguments and proof confirming that situation. In my country, there is a significant outflow of the population going to larger and more developed countries, mostly to countries we view as Western democratic countries. While investigating why our people, the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, decide to leave their country and seek better living conditions in other countries, we came to the conclusion that the fundamental reason for their departure is their belief that there is a lack of prospects in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“In both cases of migration, large countries and their larger systems are the ones that are doing the selection and choosing the best profiles of migrants, in line with their needs and aspirations, while, at the same time, the systemic weakening of the small countries from which the migrants come from is taking place. What do I mean by that? In short, it is difficult to talk about building trust while larger countries and their large systems are taking over the population of smaller countries through migration and simultaneously the smaller countries are emptying out. resulting in the creation of an environment in which poverty develops and any form of economic or social development is completely prevented. Therefore, the possibility of creating the prerequisites for self-sustainable development in smaller countries is under attack.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“In larger countries and larger systems, such selected migrants can be agents of change or bearers of various improvements, but at the same time the potential and capacities of the smaller countries from which the migrants are coming from are being weakened. Small countries, in addition to losing their most qualified personnel, are also losing all the investments they have made, including financial investments, in creating those highly qualified profiles. Of course, it is completely clear that there is a form of migration in which large groups of people are trying to escape war and the horrors of war. but there is also what we call economic migration through which migrants are being directed based on their potential and capacities.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“That statement, taken from the document entitled Migration in the 2030 Agenda of the International Organization for Migration, is certainly true, but when it comes to the starting point of migration, that is. the situation on the ground in certain countries, we see several things that are undeniably happening. The current form of migration management has reached a stage in which large and powerful countries, for their own benefit, are carrying out a certain type of selection of migrants in such a way as to select the best and most educated among them, such as doctors, engineers, scientists and other highly qualified persons, and are ushering them to larger countries where their knowledge and abilities are exploited exclusively for the benefit of those larger systems.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“I would like to point out in a few sentences the elements that could possibly make achieving those goals difficult. At the outset. I take this opportunity to remind the Assembly that migration is one of the elements that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is attempting to address systematically and through the implementation of specific governance. Although the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes migrants as agents of change and enablers for development in countries of origin, transit and destination, the Agenda primarily focuses on the migrant as a beneficiary of the ends of sustainable development, e.g. through greater protections, rights and transparency. Furthermore, the Agenda does not make reference to the broader concept of diasporas or to the role that they do and can play in development.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“However, in today’s world, often dominated by war and various geopolitical goals, that will be very difficult to achieve, at least in the way it was planned in the 2030 Agenda. For that reason. I want to emphasize that our first step should be one that leads us to enduring peace. That is the world’s first priority. From there we can move to other mutually connected actions that can prepare our countries and societies for solidarity and progress. Those actions are by no means easy, and they require a great deal of wisdom, planning and good management of all the processes and procedures that can help us implement the 2030 Agenda. If we start with the theme of this year’s session of the General Assembly, which talks about building trust and encouraging global solidarity.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Building on the theme of this year’s session of the General Assembly. “Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress and the sustainability for all”, from this important rostrum, allow me to talk about vital elements from the point of view of the small but proud State of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For its part. Bosnia and Herzegovina has given support to the 2030 Agenda, especially its Goals, which are fully related to creating a world and an environment among United Nations members so that we as States and our societies can train and prepare ourselves to implement all the steps that can lead us to self-sustainable development.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“I would also like to thank the President for his effort this year to provide us with an opportunity to exchange views in person on the world’s problems today as well as to discuss our social actions in the countries we come from. I believe that next year we will have a general debate under better epidemiological circumstances. That certainly requires that we promote the necessity of vaccination as the only scientifically proven way to avoid not just fatal consequences for human health but also severe economic consequences for society.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“All the people of my country, regardless of their identity, ethnicity, religious affiliation or lack of one, should have the same rights. If not, we will end up in an Orwellian society, where it is accepted that ultimately some people are more important than others. That will always jeopardize a society’s stability and undermine peace and security. From this rostrum, I urge the institutions of the United Nations to insist on the importance of protecting human rights in every area of their activities. Lastly, I would like to express my support for the efforts of the Secretary-General, who with the help of his staff and the United Nations agencies has managed to preserve the role of the United Nations in the difficult circumstances of the pandemic.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“Should we even bother to talk about the protection of human rights in general if in the specific case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the United Nations still has an executive mandate through the Office of the High Representative, we do not show by example that we are willing to stand up for shared values such as the protection of human rights and the equality of every citizen in relation to those who are different and other? Despite all the differences within Bosnia and Herzegovina, including among the international community represented by the Peace Implementation Council in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which assists the High Representative, I believe that the sole guiding light for my country’s future political development, as a pledge to preserve its peace and future, should be respect for the values of human rights.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“I therefore believe that this is the right place to emphasize our expectation that the international community’s new High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina will take into account the importance of protecting our international legal acts and their fundamental values. That is one of his most important tasks. Otherwise, if the international community in Bosnia and Herzegovina wants to abandon the implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we have to ask if the Universal Declaration is even necessary if its implementation is selective.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“Besides being completely unacceptable, it is also very dangerous. I am discussing the situation in my country in the context of the importance of the mechanisms of the United Nations. By means of two resolutions, including Security Council resolution 1031 (1995), the United Nations established the institution of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina to monitor the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. The United Nations itself is therefore obligated to protect the international order by protecting acts of international law, one of which is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“These trends clearly ignore the principles of human rights established by a number of texts of international law, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is the politically dangerous goals behind them that are daily destabilizing the Western Balkans and that are aimed at the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. That is evident in their efforts to impose inequality among citizens based on their ethnicity, which, let me remind Member States once again, is a form of racial discrimination, and to create ethnically pure territorial areas. The point of explaining this is to give real examples of how there can be a political agenda behind the neglect of human rights and the creation of an environment of inequality among individual citizens, and that can lead to the destabilization of entire regions such as the Western Balkans.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“On the other hand, the various policies aimed at imposing discrimination and inequality on the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina represent an attempt to invade my country’s constitutional and legal system of my country in order to secure a so-called golden key or golden share in the country’s management and decision-making. There is no way they should be permitted to do this by any international law, including the Charter of the United Nations. These efforts on the diplomatic front, which deny individuals their fundamental human rights in order to achieve obvious goals based on some imaginary collective rights, do not represent good-neighbourly relations. They are aimed at concealing the strategic goal of appropriating parts of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“At the same time, the principles of universal jurisdiction are being abused for political purposes outside the prescribed procedures and agreements that have been concluded between the States and that clearly specify the modalities for prosecuting war- crime suspects who must be held accountable. Those war-crime suspects are citizens of the countries that have primary responsibility for this. Using universal jurisdiction in a selective and political way deeply compromises the principles of criminal law and legal security, and therefore of human rights. It also undermines confidence injudicial mechanisms.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“How should we deal with the political and national factors that are negating the decisions of courts established by the United Nations, and how should we address specific cases where verdicts convicting the perpetrators of crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing are denied? Can those who deny such verdicts and hide perpetrators of genocide and war crimes even be a part of the international legal order? That question goes directly to the heart of the foundations of international law and the United Nations Organization itself.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“Those same factors negate the judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which identified the existence of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and even joint criminal enterprises, and further established that all those heinous crimes were committed on the basis of differences in the ethnicities of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. That negates one of the Universal Declaration’s fundamental human rights, the right to life. Without any moral qualms, war criminals are glorified and rewarded, and in my view that is in direct contradiction to another principle of the United Nations, which is ending impunity for war crimes. That raises other questions, which demand clear answers.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“Furthermore, the diplomatic activities of various actors call for additional discrimination on ethnic grounds in order to create an atmosphere conducive to a process for self-determination within those ethnic communities, with the ultimate goal being the dissolution or disintegration of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the annexation of parts of its territory by neighbouring countries. That foments inequality in human rights, which completely devalues and ignores the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“The complexity of this issue is evident in the attempts to discriminate among and impose inequality on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s citizens, even through international diplomatic activity, by emphasizing some citizens’ ethnicity and demanding greater rights for ethnic communities supported by neighbouring countries, and always to the detriment of fundamental human rights. What that means is that the collective rights of some, which are not expressed in international law, are being placed above the human rights of individuals. Let me say that such things are unacceptable.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“That inequality is reflected in several areas of life, including politically — because not all citizens have equal rights in the electoral system — but also because those same citizens do not have equal rights and opportunities in social life, such as the right to work. The political system in Bosnia and Herzegovina is such that it gives preference to someone’s ethnicity. Based on their ethnicity, my country’s citizens have more or fewer rights, depending on which part of the country they live in. I would like to take this opportunity to remind the Assembly that discrimination based on a person’s ethnic origin is one of the forms of racial discrimination set out in paragraph 1 of article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted by the United Nations in 1965.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“While it is understood that accession to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights does not impose a direct legal obligation on acceding countries, it is unquestionably a system of values that among other things aims to create a society both within and beyond the countries themselves that is founded on the equality of every human being on the planet with regard to their basic human rights. Unfortunately, that system of values based on the equality of every individual within a society does not exist in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I also want to point out that in five judgments against Bosnia and Herzegovina, an international court, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, has established the existence of systemic discrimination or inequality among my country’s citizens.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“I believe that we all share the view that the protection of human rights in every sector of society is a necessary condition for the creation of stable democracies in which peace and prosperity prevail. However, viewing this through the prism of the political system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I would like to take this opportunity to share with the Assembly a few important elements that are unfortunately part of the other, negative, darker side of the story. The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, initialled in Dayton and signed in Paris in 1995, is in force in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As annex 4, the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina is an integral part of the Agreement. Its preamble states clearly and unequivocally that among other things, it is based on the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“Bosnia and Herzegovina’s complex system of institutions, based on the Peace Agreement, has made it difficult to reach the political consensus needed to enable my country to move on from Dayton Agreement, which ended the war, to becoming a functioning State with prospects for joining the European Union and NATO in a way that embraces all the values that democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms demand. In order to illustrate the selectivity with which our international human rights instruments are being applied, I want to consider this very important area of the protection of human rights from the point of view of the country I come from.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“In that regard, I would like to emphasize to the Assembly that my country is considered not only a successful example of peacebuilding but also one of the maintenance of peace and development of institutions in the context of its United Nations mandate. The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina is part of the international peace agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina known as the Dayton Peace Agreement. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights are also integral parts of our Constitution. However, in the past few years, attempts to degrade basic human and civil rights and eliminate individual citizens as subjects of human rights have put increasing pressure on our society.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“The intensification of ethnic politics in my country, based on exclusion and ethnic chauvinist tendencies, along with growing religious intolerance and faltering secularism in the Western Balkans region, is extremely worrying. After living through the 1992-1995 war, the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina are very sensitive to such social disturbances, especially considering the genocide determined to have been committed in Srebrenica by the verdict of the International Court of Justice in The Hague and confirmed by the judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“They are drawn by the prospect of living in an environment where their knowledge and work can create a life of certainty for them within a rational social order. It is for that reason that I want to emphasize the protection of human rights as the next great value. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has already established it as a principle. In Europe, we also have the European Convention on Human Rights, implemented under the auspices of the Council of Europe, while the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union came into effect in 2009. Recently, however, support for human rights values seem to have weakened, as we are seeing them applied selectively and approached on the basis of double standards. I consider such trends a serious threat to the preservation of our system for protecting human rights.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“According to available statistics, nearly 10 per cent of the population has emigrated from Bosnia and Herzegovina since the last census, in 2013, mostly from the population of working age as well as young families with children. That is why I would like to draw attention to the fact that, in addition to the well-known wave of economic migrants from the Asia, the Middle East and North Africa towards my country — and we have tried to provide humanitarian aid, food and accommodation for them — we are also facing the outflow of our own population, which will cause additional social problems for our society. Our people are leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina in search of better business and life opportunities. They are also seeking security in more orderly societies that more actively promote and protect human rights values.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“However, the gradual shutdown of thermal power plants, and therefore most of our mines, which we must undertake in the next 25 to 30 years, will cause a shortage of electricity that can hardly be replaced in a timely fashion by our green-energy capacity if we are to also preserve rivers and ecological biodiversity in accordance with international norms. These are some of the real circumstances and challenges that we face, and many other States present in this Hall, I believe, face similar challenges. Nevertheless, Bosnia and Herzegovina stands behind its promise to contribute to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. One of the consequences of the slowdown in sustainable development that we are facing is the flight of the working-age population to developed countries.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“That will affect their ability to achieve the SDGs in the medium term. Therefore, financial support for the implementation of the green agenda is extremely important, with contributions from the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as such regional associations as the European Union (EU). In addition to the obligations set forth in the Paris Agreement, additional standards are imposed by the EU and accepted by countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the process of stabilization and association with the Union. In my country, Bosnia and Herzegovina, approximately 40 per cent of our electricity generation is derived from our green-energy capacity.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)