Article II Agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina

A success story

One of the greatest achievements of the past five years - since the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords ending the conflict in the country - has been the implementation of Article II (Confidence- and Security-Building Measures in Bosnia and Herzegovina) of Annex 1-B of the Accords. The Parties to the Agreement, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Republika Srpska are successfully carrying out the agreement.

From 19 to 21 February, General Carlo Jean, Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, together with representatives of the Parties to the Agreement, hosted the "Third Review Conference on the Implementation of the Agreement on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures in BiH" aimed at assessing progress made in the past years and proposing initiatives to enhance implementation.

The Agreement

Signed in Vienna on 26 January 1996, the Article II Agreement aims to build confidence and security among the three Parties. Click here for an overview of the agreement.

OSCE support

The Personal Representative, with the assistance from the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina has been assisting the Parties in implementing the agreement. This includes verifying information provided by the Parties, facilitating arms control inspections by providing OSCE expert assistance, and a series of courses and training programs on subjects such as democratic control of armed forces, code of conduct, disaster relief, emergency medicine and on auditing defence budgets.

The Parties adopted an 'Aerial Observation Protocol' and a 'Visits to Weapons Manufacturing Facilities Protocol'. The latter has been approved during the Third Review Conference.

"We have also developed a network of security studies in the BiH universities", General Jean said. The Inter-University Steering Committee for Security Studies in BiH (CSS) has been created to facilitate contacts between the different BiH universities and the Institutes for Security Studies all over the world, enhancing visits of BiH students to these centres and supporting researches based on the co-operation of more than one BiH university.

As in the two previous Review Conferences - held in February 1998 and 1999 - the Third Review Conference concluded that the Parties have been implementing the Agreement in a constructive manner, and drew up additional measures to be carried out.

An on-going process

"The confidence- and security-building measures are an open, on-going process. With the support of other international organizations, in particular the initiative of the Stability Pact, there is the potential to mobilize effort in Bosnia and Herzegovina to try to overcome the result of a terrible war and to try to rebuild co-operation and co-existence between the different people living in BiH," said General Jean.