Signing of Dayton Peace Accords

14 December 1995: The signing of the Dayton Peace Accords mandates the OSCE to help elaborate and implement three instruments that play a major role in post-conflict rehabilitation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Dayton Peace Accords, more formally known as the General Framework Agreement on Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were signed in Paris on 14 December 1995 after negotiations in November 1995 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

The Accords, which marked an end to the three-year conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, called on a number of international organizations, including the OSCE, NATO and the UN, to monitor, oversee, and implement the various components of the agreement.

The OSCE was mandated by Annex 1B of the Accords to help elaborate and implement three instruments: an agreement on confidence- and security-building measures (CSBMs) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (under Article II); a sub-regional arms control agreement (Article IV); and a regional arms control agreement applicable "in and around the former Yugoslavia" (Article V).

High-level political talks

Article II on CSBMsCSBMs
Confidence- and security-building measures in Bosnia and Herzegovina noted that the three parties (the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republika Srpska) should commence talks "at an appropriately high political level" under the auspices of the OSCE.

The aim of these negotiations was "to agree upon a series of measures to enhance mutual confidence and reduce the risk of conflict, drawing fully upon the 1994 Vienna Document of the Negotiations on CSBMs of the OSCE."

The aim of the measures for sub-regional arms control of Article IV was the establishment of a stable military balance based on the lowest level of armaments consistent with the achievement of security. Again, the parties would hold negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE in order to reach this goal.

Under Article V, covering negotiations on a regional arms control agreement, the OSCE would "assist the Parties by designating a special representative to help organize and conduct negotiations under the auspices of the Forum on Security Co-operation with the goal of establishing a regional balance in and around the former Yugoslavia."

Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina created

On 8 December 1995, just a few days prior to the formal signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, the OSCE had set up a Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina to undertake the tasks it was mandated to perform under the peace agreement.

Following the setting up of the Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the OSCE played a major role in post-conflict rehabilitation and the establishment of stability and democracy.