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The Bosnian town of Srebrenica held a re-run of local elections on February 21, 2021 [File: Reuters/Dado Ruvic]
Quotas are an imperfect yet often necessary means for societies to rectify the deficiencies of democratic processes, especially in ethnically or culturally pluralist countries.
In Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, quotas and other protections have been implemented to ensure that certain communities that may face discrimination in a post-conflict environment are guaranteed political representation in legislative and executive bodies.
In Kosovo, 20 out of the parliament’s 120 seats are allocated to minorities, including 10 for the Serbs and the rest for the Bosniaks, Egyptians, Roma, Ashkali, Turks and Gorani. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, where all political activity has an ethnic character, there are rigid quotas that ensure its three main ethnic groups – the Bosniaks, the Croats and the Serbs – are equally represented at every level.
But, delve a little deeper, and what emerges is a far more complex story.
It’s a tale that highlights the dysfunctional nature of postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina and is an insight into how much both the European Union and local authorities want to keep migrants off their respective doorsteps.
Bosnia has emerged as a staging post for EU-bound migrants in the last couple of years. Around 70,000 are estimated to have arrived in the country since January 2018, with only a small fraction claiming asylum.
The majority try and make it into the EU via Croatia, to the north.
But border closures as a result of COVID-19 and reports of illegal pushbacks mean many end up marooned in northern Bosnia.
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Published 16 December 2020
NIGERIA’S increasingly unsavoury global reputation was cemented recently when the United States government “upgraded” it to the list of world’s worst persecutors of religion. With this, Nigeria joins a shady club of 10 on the US State Department Countries of Particular Concern list, identified as those “engaged in or tolerating systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom.” Beyond the usual reflexive rebuttal, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) and his officials, the governors and their aides, should uphold the country’s secularity, protect all citizens and enforce the rule of law dispassionately.