It is the responsibility of this Council to uphold the Dayton Peace Agreement and support Bosnia and Herzegovina: UK Statement at the UN Security Council
Source: gov.uk (2025-05-06)

Statement by DCMG Karen Pierce, UK Special Envoy to the Western Balkans, at the UN Security Council debate on Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Thank you very much Mr President. I welcome the High Representative and thank him for his briefing. I’d also like to welcome the Bosnia and Herzegovina representatives in the Chamber today.

It is an honour to be back, Mr President, in the Security Council and see some familiar colleagues.

I am here today in my new capacity as the United Kingdom’s Special Envoy for the Western Balkans.

I am also here to show our support for the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, for her institutions and for the High Representative, and my Foreign Secretary is, today, visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mr President, as other people have said, it is an important year for anniversaries.

The 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the founding of the United Nations.

The 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act which then joins us to take heed about non-interference across borders.

And above all, for these purposes, the 30th anniversary not only of Srebrenica, but also of the Dayton Peace Agreement itself.

But in fact, Mr President, Bosnia has been on the agenda of this Council since the early 1990s and, at times, it has been the most serious issue that the Council has had to deal with.

Dayton, Mr President, is one of the successes of this Council.

And because of that, the Council enshrined the Dayton Peace Agreement in a Chapter 7 Security Council Resolution 1031. This represented hard work by UNSC members over many, many years.

It is unusual, as the High Representative and other speakers have said, it enshrined some very unusual civilian interventionist elements, but it stopped a war, and it is worth recalling, Mr President, that at the time, that war was the worst Europe had seen since the end of the Second World War.

It isn’t colonialism for the Council to take an interest, it isn’t colonialism for us to help Bosnia and Herzegovina along her path. As the High Representative said, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina can evolve democratically.

This itself is written down in Dayton and with the successive conferences on peace that we’ve had held by the Peace Implementation Council, held by the Steering Board, the outcome of those conferences has been endorsed variously over the years by this Council.

It is all our fervent hope, Mr President, that one day Bosnia and Herzegovina will be able to graduate from the Council’s attentions and take its place as a normal and full member of Europe.

The Dayton Peace Agreement mandates one state, two entities and three constituent peoples.

The High Representative is also mandated by Dayton as the final authority on the civilian implementation of the Peace Agreement.

The powers that he is using have been backed by the Security Council. It is not a one-off; they have been successively backed by the Security Council.

And I want to stress that, Mr President. I also want to stress that the High Representative himself, under Dayton, is chosen by the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board.

He is not chosen by the Security Council, though the Security Council’s interest has been evoked from time to time, but not universally, and I want to set that straight.

It is open to people who have left the Steering Board and, hence not had an opportunity to share in the selection of the High Representative, to return to the Steering Board.

Mr President, the cause of Bosnia and Herzegovina remains critical to the issue of stability and security in Europe.

The United Kingdom has great pleasure in cooperating with the European Union, with the US and others. This autumn, we will chair the Berlin Process, which emphasises regional cooperation among the Western Balkans countries themselves.

And I want to take a moment to salute EUFOR, who is executing its Chapter 7 mandate to maintain a secure and safe environment.

I agree that it does not have executive authority but to pretend it does is a mischaracterisation of its role.

EUFOR is there to support the state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and maintain safety and security for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s citizens.

And it is clear, Mr President, and we’ve heard today, that those citizens want better relations with the European Union, they want Euro-Atlantic integration.

We heard, particularly from the representatives of Pakistan and Sierra Leone, of their very strong support for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and I think all speakers in the Council want to uphold that.

But it bears repeating that there is one threat to that today, and it lies in the person of the RS Entity President, Milorad Dodik.

His secessionist moves, his introduction of unconstitutional laws, the threats to adopt a new anti-Dayton constitution represent direct threats to that sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence as well as to the aspirations of the Bosnian people.

What Bosnia and Herzegovina needs, Mr President, is more pluralist politics.

There is no threat to Republika Srpska entity, nor to the federation entity in EU integration, nor Euro-Atlantic future.

I repeat this again, it is not a threat to RS citizens, it is not a threat to the Federation. There are many models in Europe of national and sub-national government.

And I would point out that the High Rep would not need to use his powers if the RS President did not challenge Dayton on an almost daily basis.

The High Rep acts against all who challenge the state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it happens that at the moment, the biggest challenges are coming from Republika Srpska, but the High Representative’s role is to uphold the Dayton Peace Agreement and help the state institutions to prosper and to do their work.

Mr President, in closing, I want to refer again to what other speakers have said.

It is the responsibility of this Council, as it was in the 1990s, and it was when the Dayton Peace Agreement was concluded, to uphold the Dayton Peace Agreement, to support Bosnia and Herzegovina on its journey, its journey freely chosen by her citizens for European integration and to help her citizens thrive and prosper.