Ever since the demise of former Yugoslavia, numerous theories have been presented describing and explaining possible root causes behind horrid events that transpired.  Line of division was, and still is, a line of cultural, religious and national/ethnic differences among nations and people, collective and individual imagined identities.  Although great effort has been dedicated on deconstructing nationalism and removing it from politics and everyday life, national/ethnic identification still plays a significant role in the discrimination that many people face in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) today.1

Education pays enormous price in this regard and it is a long lived victim of political nationalistic ideologies.  OSCE has launched Educational Reform which officially started its implementation in schools on September 1, 2003.  Textbooks have been cleaned of nationalistic comments, but not completely.  Three curriculum plans and programs still exist.  Teaching practices in the classroom have not been yet explored and evaluated.  There are also approximately 26 school buildings that operate as 52 “two-schools-under-one-roof”.2

This paper analyzes promotion of political and national ideologies not only through textbooks, but through verbal communication and teaching practices in the classroom.  It will present information that came out of a study of learning and teaching experience in the classrooms of BiH elementary schools, specifically, the ideologies and values that are being promoted through primary education in elementary schools within the Federation, Bosnian Croat community, and Republika Srpska.  Rights-based analysis will be used so that proposals and conclusions are based on human rights objectives and fulfilment of human rights duties and obligations of state, entity, cantons, schools, teachers, parents, and children.

First part of the paper deals with theoretical background of nation/state building and one’s individual identity building.  What follows is international and national legal framework of the BiH.  Second part includes a preliminary case study.  Third part will present analysis of the textbooks and classroom observation and research.  What will follow is a policy analysis and proposal.

Being Croat has become my destiny . . . I am defined by my nationality, and by it alone... Along with millions of other Croats, I was pinned to the wall of nationhood - not only by outside pressure from Serbia and the Federal Army but by national homogenization within Croatia itself. That is what the war is doing to us, reducing us to one dimension: the Nation. The trouble with this nationhood, however, is that whereas before, I was defined by my education, my job, my ideas, my character--and, yes, my nationality too--now I feel stripped of all that. I am nobody because I am not a person any more. I am one of 4.5 million Croats...I am not in a position to choose any longer. Nor, I think is anyone else... something people cherished as a part of their cultural identity--an alternative to the all-embracing communism ...--has become their political identity and turned into something like an ill-fitting shirt. You may feel the sleeves are too short, the collar too tight. You might not like the colour, and the cloth might itch. But there is no escape; there is nothing else to wear. One doesn't have to succumb voluntarily to this ideology of the nation--one is sucked into it. So right now, in the new state of Croatia, no one is allowed not to be a Croat.3

Slavenka Drakulic does not only write about Croatian national identity.  Her words ring true for all people within the region who were caught in between identity crises during and after the 1991-95 war.  “Nation” and national identity are not something people were reduced to by themselves and others during the war.  This process continued and still continues to brew.  This symptomatic process and defence was during the war at its bloodiest and cruellest, but now it has been reduced to occasional incidents, constitutional regulations and laws, cultural, religious and linguistic revivals, and political debates and elections.  All of these elements clearly (re)create and mark the boundaries of nations, national identity and national consciousness.

Many have attempted to create definitions of nationalism, national identity and nation.  For the purposes of this paper, nationality is defined “as fluctuating, dynamic identity, which in a time of strife, is portrayed, recognized and based on differences (and/or similarities) played out as a creation so apparent in its eminence from the “other.”4   Furthermore, culture and identity (be they social, individual, national or political) are defined here as a “conglomerate of social and human constructions contingent on environment and numerous social interactions, which have an emotionally persuasive effect of seeming natural and being understood by (its) bearers as unquestionable and assumed parts of them.”5

According to Benedict Anderson, nation “is an imagined political community and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.  It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members … yet in the minds of each, lives the image of their communion.”6   In order for nation to be imagined politically, one has to have something to base that imagination on.  Not only are the nations imagined, but they are based on the elements which have been imagined themselves.  In other words, one group of people does not deal with its own interpretations of material, but with the interpreted and reinterpreted material according to which, a nation as an imagined identity exists.

Concept of identity as well as the symbols and meaning (elements and materials) people create and identify with are the basis of national identity.  First and foremost, identity is a construct and a process.  As a construct, it is woven out of many different elements.  National identity, likewise, is woven out of elements which can be imagined by all citizens or members of a single group: language, history, culture, religion, and territory to name a few.  Identity is also individual, however “there is no individual identity that is not historical or, in other words, constructed within a field of social values, norms of behaviour and collective symbols.”7   In this sense, identity and individuals can never be separated from community or the opposition to it.  The identity is based on the reality of “what is” as well as “what is not,” on constructed reality and imagination of “who we are” and ‘who the others are.”

In the Balkans, language and religion were/are adopted as primary lines of separation.  Currently, there are three languages in BiH as there are three constitutional people.  One language, with slight variations within three standards that are being developed, is called by the names of three constitutional peoples: Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs.  The traditional process of nation building is underway in BiH.  Three nations are building, rebuilding, restating, reclaiming, and (re)marking the boundaries of who they are and who they are not.  An internal impetus to create a state identity of a state nationality8 is not currently underway.  It was only recently that all residents of BiH started having and adhering to same standards regarding passports and identification cards.  In some municipalities of BiH, there are no state signs and symbols.  Rather those places are demarcated by entity flags and insignia.

The process of nation (re)building in BiH has not been completed.  Due to war and other circumstances, this process is tied to the “others” more than anything else.  Politically speaking, national identity is politicized and until things do not change, national identity as such will always be manipulated as a fuel for more strife.  Currently, BiH struggles with problems of returnees, internally displaced people, and refugees.  Process of integration and “reintegration” is still ongoing.  Perhaps, when economy picks up and when political parties start to be truly democratic and to represent and work for all people equally, we shall have an educational system (along with other things) that is not nationalized and politicized.  Until then, we have a book example of why language and education serve as excellent vehicles of nationalism and national and political ideologies.

According to W.D. Whitney, “whatever language (a learner) first acquires, this is to him (her) the natural and necessary way of thinking and speaking; he (she) conceives of no other as even possible.”9   Language is not rationalized by its users, it along with other early lessons in life creates our reality which is perceived as a natural and unquestionable process of thinking and understanding of the world around us.  Education, both formal and informal is a vehicle through which ideas, realities, histories, and ideologies are being communicated and disseminated.  Those lessons learned at an earlier age do cement themselves as a natural and necessary foundation on which one further defines him/herself, others, and the whole society and the world as a whole.

Even if those “lessons” were not going to leave such a huge impact on a developing stage of preschool and elementary school children, it is extremely dangerous to propagate ideologies and identities that are constructs of a society (societies) which is (are) politically dominant.  This situation translates into school textbooks which propagate different histories, cultural identities, national identities, boundaries and territories to the children living within one single state.

Before the 1992-95 war, BiH had approximately 4.4 million citizens/residents.  Three numerical majorities (92% of the population) were Croats, Muslims,10 and Serbs.  The remaining 8% included people from approximately 18 different national and ethnic groups.11

During the war in BiH, identity became a collage of self felt and supported (assumed and protective) collective, national and imagined emotions.  However, in this existed only a trinary system and everything revolved around it: Bosniaks, Bosnian Croats, and Bosnian Serbs.  Politics revolved around national political parties and agendas.

BiH has changed dramatically since the war in regards to the demographic map.  While a lot of people left BiH entirely seeking refuge elsewhere, others became refugees and internally displaced within the BiH borders.  One of the most important objectives in BiH ever since the war, and still today, has been to encourage and support people’s return to their own homes.  Return rate has been improving and full return implementation is planned to occur by the end of the year.  However, while property return rate is increasing, full return is taking place mostly in rural areas.  Urban population mostly opts to sell their property and stay/remain in the entity where they have been living since the war.

Economy/employment, social care, health care, and education play a huge role in people’s decision to return.  Parents want to know that their children will be accepted and offered religious instruction of their choosing.  They want their children to be taught according to the curriculum that is non-discriminatory and not against their cultural values.  Small incidents still occur, but numerous schools have made an effort to fully integrate and welcome returnee kids.

12 years have passed since the last census in BiH.  Estimates do exist, but nothing more.  The demographics have changed so immensely, but there is no one single official source of information that would show the current demographic state. National minorities are marginalized as such people are categorized by their names 12  and placed within one of the three groups or are invisible entirely.  In any case, they do not seem to have same rights as others.13

With the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Peace Agreement,14  BiH emerged as a state of two entities: Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS).  Both entities were created along the ethnic lines.  As the names imply themselves, Federation is a federation of predominantly Bosniaks and Croats (including internally displaced people and refugees from the RS).  Republika Srpska is a republic of predominantly Bosnian Serbs, including internally displaced persons from the Federation.  National/ethnic lines remained divided, making the return extremely difficult and in same cases dangerous.

FBiH is divided into ten cantons. Each canton has a centralized authority within itself.  The RS does have regional divisions, but the entity is centralized.  There is also District of Brcko which is not a part of either of the entities.  Both entities are divided into Municipalities that serve as local public administrations.  The smallest unit of administration is a Mjesna Zajednica (local community) and one municipality usually has as many local communities as it has villages and smaller towns.

BiH has three constitutions: state Constitution and FBiH and RS constitutions.  Although there are state laws (for example, Law on Gender Equality which was approved in May, 2003, passed on the state level), each entity has its own laws and regulations and different criminal codes.  Legal foundation of BiH is very complex and it is making it almost impossible for BiH to integrate into a unified and functional multi-ethnic state and/or to create an ethnically depoliticized systems and society.

Legalities surrounding the educational system seem to be even more complex.  Each entity has its own Ministry of Education.  Furthermore, each FBiH canton has its own Ministry of Education.  Although each entity has its own laws on Primary School and Education, in reality there are ten more as each canton drafts the same.  While the RS is centralized and one Ministry seems to cover the whole territory, the FBiH is fully decentralized.  Although the entity Ministry of FBiH has an executive power, it in reality does not even have all cantonal laws in its files and Cantons seem to do what they want.

Cantonal and entity Ministries of Education hold financial responsibilities toward schools within their designated areas.  However, Municipal bodies make contributions regarding utilities and similar expenses.  Teachers’ salaries are paid from the Ministry budgets.

By signing the Dayton Peace Agreement, war in Bosnia and Herzegovina came to an end, but BiH also became a half protectorate as well as a signee of important International Conventions.  The Agreement is outdated at this point and it does require some serious modifications, but its 11 Annexes have immense importance in regards to human rights and BiH international legal framework.

The most valuable is Annex 6, Agreement on Human Rights.  Article 1 of the agreement lists approximately 14 basic human rights, including the right to education.  This agreement also outlines institutional mechanisms which exist in order to offer protection of human rights of all BiH residents.

BIH has signed 16 international agreements and conventions.15  The most important convention is the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its Protocols, which “shall apply directly in Bosnia and Herzegovina … and have priority over all other law.”16   In other words, European Convention is above all BiH laws and as such should be implemented.  All other agreements are to be implemented, but are not legally binding at the time being as they themselves do not imply penal fees and repercussions.

Right to an Education includes a wide spectrum of rights, duties, and obligations.  What is of utmost interest for this paper is non-discrimination in education, general legal obligations, religious and moral educational freedom.  Cross-cutting rights further include issues such as: minorities, equality, family life, effective remedy, etc.  International conventions that are relevant for this paper are:

- European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the Protocols thereto (EC)

- International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms or Racial Discrimination (CERD)

- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

- International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

- Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

- European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages

- Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

- Convention relating to the Status of Refugees

Given that states are parties to the agreements that they sign, they are considered to be responsible and accountable for all listed duties obligations.  It is state’s duty to provide free and available education to all and to make it compulsory, as well as to make it a progressive right and implement it in such a way.  Those duties are to be fulfilled toward residents/citizens or direct beneficiaries of those rights, in this case: parents and children.

In the case that there is no immediate implementation of such rights, those are to be progressively planned and implemented.

The most basic and starting point is an actual right to have an education.  It is clearly stated that “education is both a human right in itself and an indispensable means of realizing other human rights. As an empowerment right, education is the primary vehicle by which economically and socially marginalized adults and children can lift themselves out of poverty and obtain the means to participate fully in their communities.”17

In BiH, primary education is compulsory, available to all, and free (excluding books, schools supplies, and in same cases transportation to and back from school).  According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ”education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.  It shall promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups ….”18

The most important components of the right to an education are: availability, accessibility acceptability, and adaptability.  In order to have education available, state should provide functional institutions and programs, therefore school buildings, trained teachers, money for upkeep of the schools and teachers’ salaries, etc.  In order for education to be accessible to everyone, there should be economic (financial) and physical (within safe physical reach) accessibility, and non-discrimination in making education available to all children.

The last two components, acceptability and adaptability, seem to be more important regarding the nature of this paper, so they will be further elaborated.

Acceptability deals with the form and substance of education.  This means that curriculum, teaching methods, etc. must be acceptable to students and parents.  They must be relevant, culturally appropriate and of good quality.19   Adaptability is even more interesting term as it constantly deals with progressive vision of education, as education “has to be flexible so it can adapt to the needs of changing societies and communities and respond to the needs of students within their diverse social and cultural settings.”20

Right to compulsory primary education includes all four components or elements of availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability.  It also includes an objective that primary education ensures that the basic learning needs of all children are satisfied, and take into account the culture, needs and opportunities of the community.  Also, non discrimination is included in this right, among other things.

Beneficiaries are always children and parents (or guardians).  However, some groups of children and parents are more vulnerable than others.  It is state’s duty to provide education and access to education to all without any discrimination or segregation, especially to the most vulnerable groups.  In the context of BiH and its post-conflict and transitional status, vulnerable groups are: refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees, national minorities (such as Roma), girl children within any of those previously mentioned groups, children with special needs (and a group that is vulnerable due to any other kind of financial, economic, social, physical or mental status).

When it comes to religious and moral educational freedom, according to ICESCR, Article 13: “the state has a duty to respect the liberty of parents to ensure their children’s education in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.”  Furthermore, “disciplinary measures should not be imposed if they conflict with a parent’s religious or philosophical convictions.”  According to the CRC, Article 29, “states parties agree that the education of the child shall be directed to:

- the development of respect for the child’s parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate, and for civilizations different from his or her own;
- the preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin “

Cultural and religious diversity and its implementation through educations is further described in the Convention of National Minorities, Article 12:

“ 1.  The Parties shall, where appropriate, take measures in the fields of education and research to foster knowledge of the culture, history, language and religion of their national minorities and of the majority.”

Article 14 further states:

“1.  The Parties undertake to recognize that every person belonging to a national minority has the right to learn his or her minority language.”

Non-discrimination is a human rights element that runs as a core issue of all human rights instruments.  It implies non-discrimination on all possible levels of education and issues surrounding education and educational institutions.

International instruments that BiH is a party to are more than clear in the most basic and complex core objectives, duties and obligations regarding education.  Purpose of education and its connection to other rights as well as its contribution to the fulfillment of each human being as such, community and a larger body, is presented as an immediate but progressive obligation as well.

When compared to the national legal framework of BiH, international conventions seem as an ideal that is hard to reach or at least is not reachable anytime soon.  However, setting up and following human rights norms that satisfy the most basic human needs of children and their parents as individuals of their own cultural, philosophical and moral values, is definitely the only way BiH should follow.

Unlike the international framework, national legal framework regarding education in BiH is sometimes too detailed about the actual founding of schools and administrative structure.  It is not too descriptive about its direct and indirect roles and overall foundation that should be laid out on non-discriminatory and diverse and inclusive concepts.

As mentioned before, each entity has its own Law on Primary Education, while ten FBiH Cantons have their own laws and regulations regards Primary School and education.

The most typical information that seems to vary from one law to the next or one ethnic side to the other regards the name of language (Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian) and pronunciation (ekavian, jekavian, and ikavian) as well as the script (Latin and Cyrilic).

FBiH Law on Primary School is inherited from the former republic of BiH Law on Primary Education.  While some articles have been changed or omitted, there are really only a few things that make this law different.  Article 3 states that: “classes in primary school shall be taught in the standard literary language of ijekavian pronunciation of the constituent peoples of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, named with one of the following names: Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian.  Primary schools shall be required to provide equal representation of both alphabets through the overall educational work, with children mastering both Cyrilic and Latin alphabet in the first three grades.”

Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, in accordance with that stipulates in its Article 37, Law on Elementary School Education, that: “ classes in elementary schools shall be conducted in the Croatian language or Bosniak (?) language with the use of the Latinic alphabet.”  Tuzla Canton, on the other hand” in Article 4 of its Law on Elementary School states that: “classes in elementary school will be delivered in the official languages of Tuzla canton.”

Law on Elementary School of Srednjobosanski (Mid Bosnian) canton, Article 4, states that: “classes in elementary school shall be delivered in one of the languages of the constituent peoples, in accordance with the rights of child’s parents, in accordance with acceptable highest European and international standards.”  This article is very interesting given that the statement above implies that any of the three languages is acceptable and in use in the canton.  However, Article 5 states the following: “if there are at least 20 students in one elementary school class. who are of the same nation or belong to the national minority and whose mother tongue is neither Croatian nor Bosnian, school will organize for them classes in their mother tongue.”

Some cantonal laws do not even make a mention of language to be used in elementary schools.  Such is the case with Sarajevo canton which regulates education in Sarajevo, capitol of BiH.  Article 4 of the Law on Primary education and upbringing of Sarajevo canton only states that pupils are to learn both Latin and Cyrilic scripts within the first three years of their education, stipulating that the Latin script is to be taught first.

RS Law on Primary School, Article 4, states that: “the curriculum in the school shall be taught in the Serbian language.  When a school has at least 20 pupils who are members of nationalities whose mother tongue is not Serbian language, instruction in their mother tongue shall be organized for them in the school.  In a primary school attended by pupils of only one nationality, the entire instruction shall be conducted in the language of that nationality, with mandatory Serbian language classes.”

The whole problem behind such numerous variations and combinations is due to lack of agreement among all sides to have a standardized name of language, involving the language pronunciation and scripts.  Each nation/people calls the language that they speak by their name (although Bosnian language stands for the state and not a particular national group).  The name of the language that was used before the war was Serbocroatian-Croatoserbian or Croatoserbian-Serbocroatian.  With the collapse of former Yugoslavia, and usage of only Croatian in Croatia and Serbian in Serbia and Montenegro, BiH named its language Bosnian.  Clearly a political choice, but an actual necessity founded on the unacceptable possessive language constructs as well as national/state and political situation, there might not be one single and easy solution to this problem.

As mentioned previously, BiH laws on education seem to be very descriptive of regulations and stipulations of actual educational processes and procedures.  However, there are a few that seem to offer progressive statements on education and cultural diversity.

RS Law on Primary School, Article 2, states that: “The objective of primary education is receiving general education, a harmonious development of the personality and preparation for life and for further general and professional education.”  Particulars of this objective include:

“-  developing intellectual and physical abilities, critical thinking, independence and interest in new knowledge;
- learning the basic laws of nature, society, and human thought;
- education for humane and cultured relations among people, regardless of their sex, race, religion, ethnicity or
  personal beliefs;
- cultivating and developing the needs for culture and the preservation of cultural and spiritual heritage;
- developing spirituality, humanity, love for truth, patriotism and other moral and spiritual heritage”

Some implications of some these particular segments will be discussed later on in the text as they are ambiguous and/or exclusionary and separatist.  For example, what implication is carried in a statement that implies patriotism only for the RS?  Or does it imply patriotism for the whole BiH?

Most cantonal laws contain the following: “Elementary school shall ensure a continued development of pupils in the field of spiritual, physically fit, moral, intellectual and social skills in harmony with individual psychophysical capabilities and preferences.”21

Although it seems that educational objectives are clearly defined by the laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the reality is quite different.  Ambiguities exist and continue to exist.  Due to such ambiguities, questions are raised regarding the actual curriculum, textbooks, teaching practices, and teaching/learning process.  In reality, some cantons do not have all necessary legal regulations and what they do have is fragmented.  There does not seem to exist one system with clearly defined functions and obligations.  It is of extreme importance that such a system be developed.  Currently progress is being made regarding drafting of one general law on education.

International organizations involved in education in BiH are: OSCE, OHR, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNHCR, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the World Bank, Civitas, and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).  Education Reform has been initiated on November 21, 2002 by the BiH authorities setting an agenda.  The Education Issue Set Steering Group (EISSG)has been formed in early 2003 out of the international organizations involved in education in order to ensure that reform priorities are met to the maximum extent by the beginning of 2003 school year.22  Reform priorities included and still include some of the following issues:

- Full Implementation of the Interim Agreement on Returnee Children
- Implementation of the a Common Core Curriculum in primary and general secondary education
- Implementation of the state-level framework Law on Primary and General Secondary Education and passage of a state-level framework Law on Higher Education
- Signature of the Bologna Declaration by BiH
- Unification of two schools under one roof starting with full administrative and legal unification

The reform has been underway now for a very long time.  September 1, 2003, was marked as a key date of changes and implementation, but at this point, not much information has been given out about the actual results.  Number of returnee children and integrated schools needs to increase as well as ensuring that national minorities, particularly Roma children, are fully included in the education system throughout BiH.

Ever since the war ended, the educational system was troubled by the one-sided historical and ethnic interpretations.  Such interpretations were the most visible in school textbooks.  Process of the removal of offensive material from textbooks started in 1999.  Ministers and Deputy Ministers of Education of the FBiH and RS met in Banja Luka on August 20, 1999, and signed an agreement regarding textbook review.23   Field verification monitoring exercise was organized by the OHR, Council of Europe, UNESCO, ECMM, and the OSCE, and has shown that implementation of the agreement varied from location to location (with the worst implementation rate in the RS).  The RS Minister of Education has contradicted the objectives of the review commission by issuing a different set of instructions to school directors.24

On 10th of May, 2000, as a part of Education Agreement, another process was started regarding removal of objectionable material from school textbooks.  New agreement was officially signed on 14th of December, 2001.  Two Entity Textbook Commissions were set at that time.  Each Entity was to review their own textbooks as well as the ones from the other Entity.  Due to considerable delays, results from the two commissions were not forwarded to OHR until July 2002.  Due to other complications and difficulties, analyzed results were not implemented.

Soon after, OSCE was given the role to oversee the education reform and the actual implementation of the March 5, 2002 Interim Agreement on the Accommodation of Specific Needs and Rights of Returnee Children, another textbook revision process started.  Also on March 5, the official Memorandum of Understanding on the Re-Establishment of the Inter-Entity Textbook Review Commission was signed by all Entity and Cantonal Ministries of Education.25

Different conclusions were reached and different problems were encountered during the Commission’s work, but some improvement has been made.  However, some issues remained unsettled and the whole process is far from complete.26
 
 

to be updated and continued ....

************

1    Nationality in this case does not mean citizenship, but rather one’s identity based on national and ethnic origin or affiliation.

2    According to the OSCE, these schools are located in cantons 4, 6, and 7.  Most of these schools have separate administrations and legal registrations as well as entrances, bells, teachers'rooms.  Children in these schools are taught according to separate Bosniak and Croat curricula.

3    Slavenka Drakulic, 1993, The Balkan Express: Fragments from the Other Side of War. New York: W.W. Norton, pages 50-52

4    Svetlana Durkovic, «Purification of Language and Language Purification,» MA Thesis, University of Chicago,
1998, pp. 2-3.

5    Ibid, page 3.

6    Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, New York: Verso, 1991, p. 6.

7    Etienne Balibar, «The Nation Form: History and Ideology,» in Becoming National, ed at al, Geoff Eley and Ronald Grigor Suny, New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, p 138.

8    By this I mean citizenship based on state affiliation, existence, and state symbols.

9    Whitney quoted in Schlesinger, I. M., “The Wax and wane of Whorfian views,” The Influence of Language on Culture and Thought: Essays in honor of Joshua Fishman’s Sixty-Fifth Birthday. Edited by Robert L. Cooper and Bernard Spolsky. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1991p. 14.

10    In 1971, the term “Muslim” was granted the official status of a narod (people or nation), making the Muslim narod one of the constituent peoples of former Yugoslavia.  The term, however, continued to carry confessional/dominational rather than ethnic value.  On September 28th, 1993, at the 2nd Bosniak Congress, the term “Bosniak” was adopted to officially replace the term “Muslim.”.  The term itself means “Bosnian” in the Turkish language.

11    Federal Institute of Statistics, Sarajevo: http://www.fzs.ba/Dem/Popis/NacStanB.htm

12    National/ethnic background of a person could be determined sometimes by person’s first and last names as those names sometimes are clearly defined as Muslim, Croat or Serb.  BiH Constitutions include an anti-discriminatory clause regarding one’s national origin and background.  It also gives a right to each person to express and define themselves on their own.  Nobody, including the state, has a right to classify and identify people according to anything but individual’s own affiliation/convictions and to further discriminate against them along those or similar lines.  However, national/ethnic origin/identity is still a tender issue and a dispute to be solved and resolved.  What is interesting is that BiH as a state and within its constitutions does not offer a definition of a nation/people or a nationality itself.  Current practice is that the population estimates are based on identifying names as opposed to giving people a choice to express and identify themselves as they want and feel themselves to be.  This too is a perpetuation of trinary national ideology and total exclusion and invisibility of everything else that is different, including exclusion of one of the identities if a person comes from ethnically mixed marriage or simply does not want to identify along ethnic lines.

13    For example, only a person from one of the three constitutional peoples can run for the BiH presidency and similiar pollitical functions.

14    Dayton Peace Agreement was initiated in Dayton in November 1995, and signed in Paris on December 14, 1995.

15      -Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime and Genocide
-1949 Geneva Conventions I-IV on the Protection of the Victims of War, and the 1977 Geneva Protocols I-II thereto
-1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the Protocols thereto
-1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1966 Protocol thereto
-1957 Convention on the Nationality of Married Women
-1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness
-1965 International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms or Racial Discrimination
-1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the 1966 and the 1989 Optional Protocols thereto
-1966 Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
-1979 Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women
-1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
-1987 European Convention on the Prevention of Torture and Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
-1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
-1990 Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
-1992 European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages
-1994 Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

16    Article II, Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 2, Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina

17    ESCR Committee, General Comment 13, paragraph 1

18    Article 26

19    ICESCR, Article 13 (1)

20    ICESCR, Article 13

21    General provisions of primary education, Article 3, Herzegovinia-Neretva canton

22    Education Reform Agenda: an Update, June 2003, page 2, OSCE and OHR, Sarajevo

23    Report on the Work on the Inter-Entity Textbook Review Commission, July 2003, page 1, OSCE

24    Ibid.

25    Ibid, page 3.

26    For more detailed information, see Report on the Work on the Inter-Entity Textbook Review Commission, July 2003,  OSCE
 
 

Anderson, Anderson. 1991. Imagined Communities, New York: Verso

Balibar, Etienne. 1996. «The Nation Form: History and Ideology,» in Becoming National, ed at al, Geoff Eley and Ronald Grigor Suny, New York: Oxford University Press

Drakulic, Slavenka. 1993. The Balkan Express: Fragments from the Other Side of War. New York: W.W. Norton.

Durkovic, Svetlana,  «Purification of Language and Language Purification,» MA Thesis, University of Chicago, 1998

Education Reform Agenda: an Update, 2003, OSCE and OHR, Sarajevo

Report on the Work on the Inter-Entity Textbook Review Commission, 2003, OSCE

Schlesinger, I. M. 1991. “The Wax and wane of Whorfian views,” in The Influence of Language on Culture and Thought: Essays in honor of Joshua Fishman’s Sixty-Fifth Birthday. Edited by Robert L. Cooper and Bernard Spolsky. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
 

BACK HOME