General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (The Dayton Peace Accords)

The Dayton Peace Accords were agreed upon and initialled at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (Dayton, Ohio, U.S.) on 21 November 1995 and formally signed in Paris, France, on 14 December 1995.

HOLBROOKE:

The ceremony that we had not even dared dream about - “a day that many believed would never come,” as Warren Christopher put it - began at 3:00 P.M. in the same room at the Hope Center where it had all begun twenty-one days earlier.

”On paper, we have peace. To make it work is our next and greatest challenge…Let us pledge, therefore, that this day in Dayton be long remembered as the day on which Bosnia and its neighbors turned from war to peace.”

There was much work left before the signing ceremony. NATO had to send sixty thousand troops to Bosnia - the largest troop movement in Western Europe since World War II - and deploy thousands more of the Adriatic coast at a forward logistics base in Hungary.

(Excerpts from Richard Holbrooke’s book “To End a War”)

Currently, the only official copy of the Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the English one.

According to the Office of the High Representative, the procedure for the translation of the Accords was agreed upon in Paris in 1995, shortly after the original document had been signed. The agreement outlining the procedure specified that each signatory (Croatia, Yugoslavia/Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) was to produce a translation draft of the document, which was then supposed to be sent back to France where experts would finalize the translations before they were made official. While Croatia and Serbia sent their drafts by 2002, Bosnia and Herzegovina never did so.

Consequently, Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have an official translation of the Dayton Peace Accords, including its Constitution in the form of Annex 4. The Institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina use unofficial translations of the Accords.

The Agreement for the Establishment of the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian Language Texts of the Annexes to the General Framework Agreement, signed in Paris on 14 December 1995, stipulated that each party to the GFAP would provide the French Government with the respective language version. The French Government received a draft translation in Croatian from the Republic of Croatia and in Serbian from the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

However, no draft translation into the Bosnian language was received from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Until this is finalized, the English version of the Annexes to the GFAP remains the only official version.

(Office of the High Representative Website)

Currently, the only official copy of the Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the English one.

According to the Office of the High Representative, the procedure for the translation of the Accords was agreed upon in Paris in 1995, shortly after the original document had been signed. The agreement outlining the procedure specified that each signatory (Croatia, Yugoslavia/Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) was to produce a translation draft of the document, which was then supposed to be sent back to France where experts would finalize the translations before they were made official. While Croatia and Serbia sent their drafts by 2002, Bosnia and Herzegovina never did so.

Consequently, Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have an official translation of the Dayton Peace Accords, including its Constitution in the form of Annex 4. The Institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina use unofficial translations of the Accords.

(Source: „Dayton Peace Accords Recontextualization“, Marijana Sivrić & Lidija Mustapić)

“The Agreement for the Establishment of the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian Language Texts of the Annexes to the General Framework Agreement, signed in Paris on 14 December 1995, stipulated that each party to the GFAP would provide the French Government with the respective language version. The French Government received a draft translation in Croatian from the Republic of Croatia and in Serbian from the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

However, no draft translation into the Bosnian language was received from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Until this is finalized, the English version of the Annexes to the GFAP remains the only official version."

(Source: OHR - Office of the High Representative)