Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Not to be confused with Bosnia and Herzegovina or Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine Федерација Босне и Херцеговине
Location of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (red) inside of Bosnia and Herzegovina (camel) on the European continent (white).
Location of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (yellow) within Bosnia and Herzegovina.1
Capital (and largest city)		Sarajevo
Official language(s)		Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian
Ethnic groups (2002)		Bosniaks: 70% Croats: 28% Serbs: 1%
Demonym		Bosnian, Bosniak
Government		Parliamentary system
-	President	Živko Budimir
-	Prime Minister	Nermin Nikšić
Entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina
-	Formed	18 March 1994
-	Recognized in Bosnia and Herzegovina constitution	14 December 1995
Area
-	Total	26,110.5 km2  10,085 sq mi
-	Water (%)	N/A
Population
-	2009 estimate	2,327,318[1]
-	1996 census	2,444,6652
-	Density	117/km2  303.86/sq mi
Currency		Convertible Mark (BAM)
Time zone		CET (UTC+1)
-	Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Drives on the		right
The Flag of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Coat of arms of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and were due to be replaced by September. On 31 March 2007, the Constitutional Court placed its decision into the "Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina" officially removing them.[2] The federation has not yet adopted a new anthem or coat of arms, but uses the symbols of the central state as a provisional solution.[3]
1	Although the Brčko District is formally held in condominium by both entities simultaneously (the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska), it is a de facto third entity, as it has all the same powers as the other two entities and is under the direct sovereignty of BiH.[4][5]
2	Refugees abroad included

The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina  listen (help·info) (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine Serbian Cyrillic: Федерација Босне и Херцеговине) is one of the two political entities that compose the sovereign country of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the other entity is the Republika Srpska). The two entities are delineated by the Inter-Entity Boundary Line. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is primarily inhabited by Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats, which is why it is informally referred to as the Bosniak-Croat Federation (with the Bosnian Serbs as the third constituency of the entity).

The Federation was created by the Washington accords signed on 18 March 1994, which established a constituent assembly that continued its work until October 1996. The Federation now has its own capital, government, president, parliament, customs and police departments, postal system (in fact, two of them), and airline (BH Airlines). It used to have its own army, the Army of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, though along with the Army of the Republika Srpska it was fully integrated into Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, controlled by the Ministry of Defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on 6 June 2006.

History

The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was formed by the Washington Agreement of March 1994. Under the agreement, the combined territory held by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Defence Council forces was divided into ten autonomous cantons. The cantonal system was selected to prevent dominance by one ethnic group over another.

In 1995, Bosnian government forces and Bosnian Croat forces of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina defeated forces of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia, and this territory was added to the federation. By the Dayton Agreement of 1995, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was defined as one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina and comprised 51% of the federation area. The Republika Srpska comprised the other 49%.

On 8 March 2000, the Brčko District was formed as an autonomous entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina and it was created from part of the territory of both Bosnian entities. Brčko District is now a shared territory that belongs to both entities.

Geography

Boundary

The Inter-Entity Boundary Line (IEBL) that distinguishes Bosnia and Herzegovina's two entities essentially runs along the military front lines as they existed at the end of the Bosnian War, with adjustments (most importantly in the western part of the country and around Sarajevo), as defined by the Dayton Agreement. The total length of the IEBL is approximately 1,080 km. The IEBL is an administrative demarcation and not controlled by the military or police and there is free movement across it.

Cantons

Main article: Cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is divided into ten cantons (Bosnian: kantoni Croatian: županije):

	No.	Canton	Center		No.	Canton	Center
	I.	Una-Sana	Bihać		VI.	Central Bosnia	Travnik
	II.	Posavina	Orašje		VII.	Herzegovina-Neretva	Mostar
	III.	Tuzla	Tuzla		VIII.	West Herzegovina	Široki Brijeg
	IV.	Zenica-Doboj	Zenica		IX.	Sarajevo	Sarajevo
	V.	Bosnian Podrinje	Goražde		X.	Canton 10	Livno

Five of the cantons (Una-Sana, Tuzla, Zenica-Doboj, Bosnian Podrinje and Sarajevo) are Bosniak majority cantons, three (Posavina, West Herzegovina and Canton 10) are Croat majority 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.

Cities

List of the municipalities in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina:^{[note 1][6][7]}

Sarajevo is not a municipality and comprises four municipalities Centar, Novi Grad, Novo Sarajevo and Stari Grad. It has a total population of 310,605 inhabitants.^[7]

No.	Name	Population
1.	Tuzla	131,718
2.	Zenica	127,103
3.	Novi Grad - Sarajevo	124,742
4.	Mostar	111,364
5.	Novo Sarajevo	73,394
6.	Centar - Sarajevo	69,889
7.	Cazin	62,510
8.	Bihać	61,358
9.	Ilidža	59,271
10.	Živinice	55,305
11.	Travnik	54,878
12.	Gračanica	52,212
13.	Lukavac	50,998
14.	Tešanj	48,266
15.	Velika Kladuša	46,759
16.	Gradačac	46,154
17.	Sanski Most	44,322
18.	Kakanj	43,300
19.	Stari Grad - Sarajevo	42,580
20.	Srebrenik	41,692
21.	Visoko	40,320
22.	Zavidovići	37,983
23.	Bugojno	37,209
24.	Kalesija	35,751
25.	Livno	31,878
26.	Žepče	31,056
27.	Goražde	30,123
28.	Konjic	28,266
29.	Bosanska Krupa	28,062
30.	Tomislavgrad	27,116
31.	Široki Brijeg	26,267
32.	Banovići	25,786
33.	Vitez	25,109
34.	Novi Travnik	24,884
35.	Jajce	24,328
36.	Ljubuški	23,689
37.	Maglaj	23,381
38.	Čapljina	23,050
39.	Vogošća	23,038
40.	Hadžići	22,727

Demographics

Ethnic composition in 1991

The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina comprises 51% of the land area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is home to 62.1% of the country's total population.^[8] All data dealing with population, including ethnic distributions, are subject to considerable error because of the lack of official census figures.

Year	Muslims	%	Croats	%	Serbs	%	Yugoslavs	%	Others	%	Total
1991	1,423,593	52.3%	594,362	21.9%	478,122	17.6%	161,938	5.9%	62,059	2.3%	2,720,074
1996[9]		72.5%		22.8%		2.3 %	0%	0%		2.4%

Government and politics

The government and politics of the Federation are dominated by two large parties, the Bosniak Party for Democratic Action (Stranka demokratske akcije, SDA) and the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Hrvatska demokratska zajednica, HDZ).^[10]

In September 2010, the International Crisis Group warned that "disputes among and between Bosniak and Croat leaders and a dysfunctional administrative system have paralysed decision-making, put the entity on the verge of bankruptcy and triggered social unrest".^[10]

Gallery

• 

  Počitelj - Old village near Mostar.

• 

  Mostar - Stari Most (Old bridge).

• 

  Sarajevo - View from east.

• 

  Pliva Waterfall.

• 

  Troglav.

• 

  Vrelo Bosne.

See also

• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Republika Srpska
• Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Notes

1. ^ The town of Brčko is part of the Brčko District, which is part of both, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska.

References

1. ^ Federation Office of Statistics
2. ^ "30th Plenary session". Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. http://www.ccbh.ba/eng/press/index.php?pid=349&sta=3&pkat=507. 
3. ^ Reuters (16 July 2008). "Muslim Outcry Over Bosnian Serbs `State` Symbols". Dalje. http://dalje.com/en-world/muslim-outcry-over-bosnian-serbs-state-symbols/164758. 
4. ^ Office of High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina
5. ^ Office of High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina
6. ^ "Estimation total number of present population by age, sex and cantons and municipality, 30 June 2008" (PDF). Federal Office of Statistics, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. http://www.fzs.ba/Dem/ProcPrist/stalno.pdf. Retrieved 2009-08-10. 
7. ^ ^{a b} http://www.fzs.ba/saopcenja/2010/14.2.1.pdf
8. ^ "POPULATION OF THE FEDERATION BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 1996 - 2006". Federal Office of Statistics. http://www.fzs.ba/Dem/stanovnistvo-bilten110.pdf. 
9. ^ Lukas Krienbuehl (June, 2010). "Working Paper-Peace With Power-Sharing: Under Which Conditions?", Swiss Peace, p.19, [1]
10. ^ ^{a b} "Federation of Bosnia And Herzegovina – A Parallel Crisis". International Crisis Group. 28 September 2010. http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/publication-type/media-releases/2010/europe/federation-of-bosnia-and-herzegovina%E2%80%93a-parallel-crisis.aspx. 

External links

• Website of the Federation Government
• Parliament of the Federation
• Website for persons unaccounted for in connection with the conflict on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, International Committee of the Red Cross.