Constitutional reform should be the international community’s priority for Bosnia-Herzegovina, a Capitol Hill hearing heard last week. But democracy remains fragile and threatened elsewhere in the Western Balkans too, according to testimony from Ivana Howard, the National Endowment for Democracy’s program officer for Central and Eastern Europe.
Independent media have been harassed in Albania and officials strenuously resist efforts to curb endemic corruption in Kosovo.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, political elites were exploiting people’s “fear of others” to mobilize ahead of forthcoming elections. “This ‘fear factor’ must be removed if Bosnia and Herzegovina is to have a chance at becoming a fully functional, democratic state integrated into Euro-Atlantic structures,” Howard told the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
“Prodemocratic opposition leaders, as well as civil society, should be recognized and allowed to participate as equal players in drafting, debating, and advocating for the new constitutional provisions,’ Howard argued. “The kinds of programs that NED and its grantees are doing in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Balkans to strengthen democracy remain important for the long-term stability and prosperity of the region.”
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