Dayton +20 (Forced Migration Review 50)

An introductory note on FMR 50, 'Dayton + 20: twenty years on from the Dayton Agreement in the Balkans', from the Editors. Twenty years on from the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in November 1995, the consequences of conflict – including the long-term effects of displacement – are still being felt in the Western Balkans. This issue of FMR focuses largely on the question of return. Some of those who were driven from their homes have been unable to return; others have returned but have struggled to rebuild their lives. The Agreement may have brought an end to war but its implementation has not yet put an end to human suffering and social crisis. As one of our authors says, “Twenty years on, the return project is ready for review.” This is an appropriate moment to examine the particular cases of people who were displaced from and within Bosnia and Herzegovina as a result of the 1992-95 war, and to reflect on the ‘lessons’ that may be drawn from the successes and failures of the Dayton Peace Agreement. These lessons have resonance for current crises – such as in Syria or Ukraine – and merit attention. This issue also includes a number of ‘general’ articles on other aspects of forced migration. We would like to thank Selma Porobic (Centre for Refugee and IDP Studies, University of Sarajevo) and Erin Mooney (United Nations Protection Capacity/ProCap) for their assistance as advisors on the feature theme of this issue. We are also grateful to Catholic Relief Services-USCCB, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and UNHCR’s Regional Bureau for Europe for their financial support. If you would like to request print copies of this Listing, or of the full version of FMR 50, please email us at fmr@qeh.ox.ac.uk. Please help disseminate this issue by circulating to networks, mentioning it on Twitter and Facebook and adding it to resources lists.

The aim of creating ethnically homogeneous statelets was curbed at Dayton but the dominance of ethnic politics was not.

Annex 7 to the Dayton Peace Agreement was designed to address the displacement of 2.2 million people during the Bosnian war of 1992-95. Its job is not yet done.

Twenty years after Dayton, failures to facilitate effective refugee and IDP return have had a social and political impact at both community and state level.

The coming two-and-a-half years represent what is possibly the last window of opportunity to accomplish what the Dayton Peace Agreement’s Annex 7 set out to achieve.

Despite its shortcomings, the Regional Process in the Western Balkans offers a number of lessons for resolving protracted refugee situations.

“These people are as if lost in time and space.” Still displaced after 20 years, residents of collective centres in Bosnia and Herzegovina share their frustration. They need to be listened to.

Sidelining a rights-based approach in the area of property restitution and reconstruction in Bosnia and Herzegovina resulted in an unequal impact on rural versus urban displaced populations.

A social housing methodology recently introduced in Bosnia and Herzegovina illustrates the need for certain key components in any strategy to address the shelter and livelihoods needs of vulnerable citizens.

New research is attempting to address the lack of empirical grounding for much of the psychosocial programming in post-war trauma in the Western Balkans.

An ethnically divided educational system in Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to limit the sustainable return of those displaced by the war, and to hamper reconciliation and the reconstruction of society.

Sustainable refugee return can only take place in Bosnia and Herzegovina when ordinary people and human rights activists are included as full participants in the recovery process.

When a peace agreement guarantees the rights of certain groups but not all, limitations to the enjoyment of human rights are inevitable.

The exclusion of women from the process of making peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina has diminished the prospects for sustainable peace. When will we learn that no peace can be sustainable and just without the active and meaningful participation of women?

Emphasising the crucial role of refugee returns to the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina risks minimising the agency of those who choose not to exercise their rights under Annex 7.

Once there is a genuine possibility of going home, what influences a forced migrant’s decision to return to a pre-conflict residence, often in the face of very difficult conditions? What role can remote voting play?

The experiences of displaced people in Sarajevo show that living in a place that people perceive to be safe and to provide opportunities can be more desirable than returning to one’s place of origin. Participatory urban projects can help foster community.

Some IDPs living in protracted displacement in Bosnia and Herzegovina, such as many Roma IDPs, were especially vulnerable to the effects of the May 2014 flooding and landslides.

Public memorialisation in Bosnia and Herzegovina today is an act of remembering not just those who died in the conflict but also the multi-ethnic reality of earlier times. Articulation of this, however, is being obstructed in cities like Prijedor.

Twenty years after the evacuations from the Bosnian ‘safe areas’, humanitarians continue to struggle with dilemmas around humanitarian evacuations.

It is instructive to review the legacy the conflict in Bosnia and the post-war settlement in order to appreciate how this conflict set the stage for major institutional developments in the field of humanitarian protection.

New research findings indicate that factors such as the gender of the judge and of the appellant, and where the appellant lives, are influencing asylum appeal adjudication.

Providing a variety of safe shelter types, each with its own unique strengths and limitations, within a single area could help meet the diverse and changing needs of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

Refugees should be treated not as poor, traumatised foreigners but as strong and capable people who can be resources in their countries of resettlement.

A project in the UK aiming to prepare young men for return to Afghanistan through an assisted voluntary return programme was unsuccessful. A different, longer-term approach might have been more appropriate and more effective.

Changing concepts of protection and a growing diversity in the practice of protection and in the range of humanitarian and other actors doing protection work have led to a fragmentation of effective protection for forced migrants.