Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
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| Official languages | Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian | ||||
| Capital | Sarajevo | ||||
| Area – Total – % water | 26,110 km² n/a | ||||
| Population – Total (2002) – Density | 2,318,972 88/km² | ||||
| Ethnic groups (2002) | Bosniaks: 72.9% Croats: 21.8% Serbs: 4.4% and others: 1.0% | ||||
| President | Niko Lozančić | ||||
| Time zone | UTC +1 | ||||
| Currency | Convertible Mark | ||||
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine, Федерација Босне и Херцеговине) is one of the two political entities that compose the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the other entity is the Republika Srpska).
It is primarily inhabited by Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and Bosnian Croats, which is why it is informally referred to as the Muslim-Croat Federation. However, by decision of the Constitutional court in 2001, the Serbs were declared the third constituent ethnic group of the Federation. The same happened to Bosniaks and Croats in the Republika Srpska.
The Federation was created by the Washington accords signed on March 18, 1994, which established a Constituent assembly (Ustavotvorna skupština/Ustavotvorbeni Sabor). The Constituent assembly continued its work until October 1996.
The Federation now has its own capital, government, flag and coat of arms, president, parliament, customs and police departments, postal system (in fact, two of them), and airline (Air Bosna). It has its own army, the Vojska Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine, though it is under the control of the state-level Bosnia-Herzegovina Ministry of Defense, as is the Vojska Republike Srpske. Entity armies (including Vojska Republike Srpske) are to be united by the end of the 2005 and entity-level Ministry of Defence and their armies are to be abolished by January 1, 2006.
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Administrative divisions
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is divided into ten cantons (kanton or županija):
- Una-Sana, Unsko-Sanski Kanton
- Posavina, Posavski Kanton
- Tuzla, Tuzlanski Kanton
- Zenica-Doboj, Zeničko-Dobojski Kanton
- Bosnian Podrinje, Bosanskopodrinjski Kanton
- Central Bosnia, Srednjebosanski Kanton or Županija Središnja Bosna
- Herzegovina-Neretva, Hercegovačko-neretvanski Kanton or Hercegovačko-neretvanska Županija
- West Herzegovina, Zapadnohercegovačka Županija
- Sarajevo, Kanton Sarajevo
- Canton 10, Zapadnobosanska / Hercegbosanska Županija
Five of the cantons (Una-Sana, Tuzla, Zenica-Doboj, Bosnian Podrinje and Sarajevo) are Bosniak cantons, three (Posavina, West Herzegovina and Canton 10) are Croat cantons, and two (Central Bosnia and Herzegovina-Neretva) are 'ethnically mixed', meaning there are special legislative procedures for protection of the constituent ethnic groups.
A significant portion of Brčko district was also part of the Federation; however, when the district was created, it became shared territory of both entities, but it was not placed under control of either of the two, and is hence under direct jurisdiction of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Currently the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has 79 municipalities.
Institutions
There is a President of the Federation, and two Vice-presidents thereof, just like in Republika Srpska, the incumbents of which regularly rotate. The current president is a Croat, Niko Lozančić of the HDZ party, whereas both the Bosniak (Sahbaz Džihanović) and Serb (Desnica Radivojević) Vice-presidents come from the SDA party.
The Cabinet has 16 members with carefully delineated nationality quotas. There are 8 Bosniak, 5 Croat and 3 Serb ministers in the current Government. The present Prime minister is a Bosniak, Ahmet Hadžipašić of the SDA.
The Parliament consists of two houses, the House of Representatives and the House of Peoples. The House of Representatives is an elected body of 98 MPs, whereas the House of Peoples consists of representatives delegated by the cantonal parliaments.
Interestingly, a number of institutions in the Federation still function under the 'componental' system; there is a Croat postal system and a Bosniak postal system, a Croat telecom and a Bosniak telecom, a Croat army component and a Bosniak army component; however, recently many systems have been merged into one single public company, eg. the pension system or the public broadcasting company of the Federation. Each of the cantons also has broad-ranging authorities, such as having its own courts and police forces.
Federation currently has its own entity police force. Police systems including entity ministries of security of both entities are to be united by 2010 into a new state-level Ministry of Security and entity level police forces are to abolished and replaced with state level police force under regional control.
Armies of both entities are now under the control of a new state-level Ministry of Defence. Entity armies are to be united by the end of the 2005 and entity-level Ministry of Defence and their armies are to be abolished by January 1, 2006.
See also
External links
