Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is a highly decentralized parliamentary republic whose complex constitutional regime is embedded in the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the 1992–95 Bosnian War. Political affairs are characterized by severe partisan gridlock among nationalist leaders from the country’s Bosniak, Serb, and Croat communities. Political participation by citizens from other communities is extremely limited. Corruption remains a serious problem in the government and elsewhere in society.

• Local elections were held in October. In the Federation entity, the “Troika” coalition held most of the mayoral seats it controlled beforehand, while the secessionist Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) won most mayoralties in the Republika Srpska (RS) entity. The Croat nationalist HDZ BiH performed well in municipalities with a Croat majority, but lost three mayoralties compared to the previous local polls in 2020. An observer mission from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said the election was competitive and well-run, but noted instances of pressure on voters, misuse of public resources, few parties that campaigned across ethnic lines, and low representation of women.
• In December, BiH Security Minister Nenad Nešić was arrested by RS entity police on a litany of corruption charges. He is the most senior RS-based politician to be arrested in recent years.
• In September, Bosnian media reported that High Representative Christian Schmidt had retained the services of a British law firm in an effort to see the Office of the High Representative (OHR) testify in an appeal of the so-called Kovačević case at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). (In its 2023 ruling on the case, the ECHR had struck down segments of BiH’s constitution on the grounds that its ethnoterritorial provisions were discriminatory. If the ruling was upheld, it would likely require the country’s constitution, which has generated several landmark legal cases regarding unfair political representation, to be rewritten.) The revelation prompted criticism of Schmidt—who has argued that the implementation of the Kovačević decision would be divisive—for acting without the authorization of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), the OHR’s steering board. BiH’s Council of Ministers had appealed the Kovačević decision at the ECHR.

This report has been abridged for Freedom in the World 2025 due to ongoing budget constraints. Freedom in the World is entirely funded by nongovernmental sources such as private foundations, corporations, and individuals like you. Please consider making a donation to support future editions of this vital resource.

For additional background information, see last year’s full report.