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![[Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina]](../images/b/ba-fed.gif)
image by Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
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The Constitutional Court (CC) decided that both the Serb
Republic and the Federation had to adopt new flags (although the
decision is named "partial decision" whatever that
means in Bosnian legal system), however, the deadline for the
implementation of that decision has not yet come.
At the website
of the CC of B&H it is explained:
"Today, on 31 March 2006, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia
and Herzegovina commenced with its 30th Plenary session, on
Vlašic. [...]
In case U 4/04, concerning a request of Mr. Sulejman Tihic, who
was at the time of filing the request a Chair of Presidency of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, for review of constitutionality of
Articles 1 and 2 of the Law on Coat of Arms and Flag of
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Articles 1, 2 and 3 of the
Constitutional Law on Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem of the
Republika Srpska, Articles 2 and 3 of the Law on Use of Flag,
Coat of Arms and Anthem and Articles 1 and 2 of the Family
Patron-Saint's Days and Church Holidays of Republika Srpska, the
Constitutional Court decided to take a partial decision. In
regards to part of the request referring to Articles 1 and 2 of
the Law on Family-Patron's Days and Church Holidays of the
Republika Srpska and having regard to the fact that adoption of
new law is currently in the process, the Constitutional Court
decided to postpone its decision on this issue, as well as on the
issue of flag referred to in Article 1 of the Constitutional Law
on Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem of the Republika Srpska.
In the partial decision adopted today, it was established that
Articles 1 and 2 of the Law on Coat of Arms and Flag of the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Articles 2 and 3 of the
Constitutional Law on Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem of the
Republika Srpska are not in conformity with Article II.4 of the
Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina in connection with Article
1.1 and 2 (a) and (c) of the International Convention on
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination under Annex I
to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Parliament of the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and National Assembly of
Republika Srpska are ordered, in accordance with Article 63 para
4 of the Rules of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, to conform these provisions to the Constitution of
Bosnia and Herzegovina within time limit of six months, from the
date of publishing this Decision in Official Gazette of Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
It was established that Article 2 of the Law on Use of Flag, Coat
of Arms and Anthem in the part providing that flag, coat of arms
and anthem of the Republika Srpska „represent statehood of
the Republika Srpska" is not in accordance with Article I.1
and I.2 of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that
Article 3 of the Law on Use of Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem, in
the part providing that symbols of the Republika Srpska are used
«in accordance with moral norms of Serb people" are not in
accordance with Article II.4 of the Constitution of Bosnia and
Herzegovina in connection with Articles 1.1 and 2 (a) and (c) of
the International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination under Annex I to the Constitution of Bosnia
and Herzegovina so that the Constitutional Court annulled them
respectively. The annulled provisions shall not be in force as of
the following date from the date of publishing this Decision in
«Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina» pursuant to
Article 63, para 3 of the Rules of the Constitutional Court.
[...]
All adopted decisions will be available on the web page of the
Constitutional Court one month following the submission to the
appellants.
Dusan Kalember
Secretary General Constitutional Court of Bosnia and
Herzegovina".
On the same site, there is a new
release article with recounts of a visit of a EU delegation
in May 2006 to which was stated (my translation): "In regard
with the implementation of the partial decision U 4/04
determining that certain articles of [various flag related laws
mentioned above] are not in regard with the Constitution of
B&H and the European convention on human rights, it is noted
that the deadline was not yet established since the decision was
not yet published in the official gazette [and the deadline is
set in the decision to six months after the publication].
Therefore, it is too early to tell of its implementation "
The full text of the partial decision in English is available at
<www.ccbh.ba/eng>
and Bosnian at <www.ccbh.ba/bos>.
Željko Heimer, 21 October 2006
My translation from <www.index.hr>
published 4 hours ago:
"The Constitutional Court of B&H reached a verdict to
abrogate the coat of arms and the flag of the Federation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina and the coat of arms and the anthem of the
Republic of Srpska, writes B92 [a Belgrade news agency].
With this decision enters into force the prohibition on the use
of those symbols and new symbols should be adopted that would
contain symbols of all constitutional peoples.
This verdict was made since non of the two entities did obey a
previous Court decision requiering that within 6 months the
symbols be aligned with the determinations of the B&H
COnstitution, that requires the symbols to represent all three
constitutional peoples.
A request for the prolongation of that dead line by the Republic
of Srpska was rejected, as much as the request to reexamine the
Constitutional Court decision.
In the Federation the abrogation produced almost no reactions,
since they were not considered real symbols by anyone, however,
in Srpska the decision produced bitterness
"I believe that the Court does not understand neither the
time nor the place where it is. There is no Legislation on the
Constitutional Court, so it works by its own rules as it likes,
which is legal nonsense." - stated Igor Radojicic, chairman
of the parliament of Srpska, adding that the decision on symbols
is way too emotional issue to be made in such way.
However, the Constitutional Court decision is irrevocable."
An other news is at <www.bljesak.info>
with photos of some Coat of Arms being removed from offices...
The decision shall be finally worded on a subsequent session of
the Constitutional Court, and the decision shall be then issued
in the official gazette "Službeni glasnik Bosne i
Hercegovine" - the decision shall become valid on the day of
issue in the gezette. Official site of the Constitutional Court
is at <www.ccbh.ba>.
Željko Heimer, 29 January 2007
The jurists estimate that the Constitutional Court
deliberately postponed the "verification" of the
decision for its subsequent session, so to, indirectly, give more
time to the parliaments of the two entities to prepare the new
symbols. It is estimated that the decision shall not be published
in the official gazette for two or three months at least. Also,
see my news article at <www.hgzd.hr>.
Željko Heimer, 30 January 2007
The decision of the Constitutional court have some references
to the legislation on the entity flag: Zakon o grbu i zastavi
Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine («Službene novine Federacije
BiH» br. 21/96 i 26/96). Relevant parts are quoted in the
decision (case no. U 4/04 on <www.ccbh.ba>)
" 97. The Law on the Coat of Arms and the Flag of the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of the
Federation of BiH Nos. 21/96 and 26/96)
Article 1 The Coat of Arms is in the shape of a shield and
consisting of three fields: the left upper field, which occupies
one quarter of the Coat of Arms, contains a shield with gold
lilies on the green background mounted in gold band; the right
upper field, which occupies one quarter of the Coat of Arms,
contains a historical Croat coat of arms with 25 quarters of red
and white colour mounted in red band; the lower field, which
occupies one half of the coat of arms, contains ten white
six-point stars arranged in circle; the shield with gold lilies
and historical Croat coat of arms are placed in the white field;
the coat of and the blue filed are fitted in gold band.
41
Article 2 The flag of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is
rectangular with fields of red, white and green colour and the
coat of arms of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina referred
to in Article 1 of this Law. The white filed is three times
larger than the red field and green field. The proportion between
the width and the length is 3:5.
Željko Heimer, 30 January 2007
I received info from Adi Mirojevic on the status of the change
of the symbols of the two entities forming Bosnia and
Herzegovina: Republika Srpska (RS) and the Federation of B&H
(FBiH), whose symbols were recently invalidated by the
Constitutional Court (CC) and they have to find some new ones.
The decision of the CC of B&H on the coat of arms and the
flag of FBiH and the coat of arms and the anthem of RS being
inconsistent with the Constitution was issued in the Official
gazette "Službeni glasnik BiH 45/07". This make
these symbols now officially invalid and abandoned.
The competition for the new coat of arms of RS was issued already
and is already closed. According to Adi, the Federation is
expected to issue its competition within a month.
Željko Heimer, 16 June 2007
Unlike Srpska, the other "half" of
Bosnia-Herzegovina has apparently not done much regarding the new
symbols. The only that I was fond is at <www.fbihvlada.gov.ba>:
The session of the government held on 5th April 2007 had in its
agenda the decision on five members for the Workgroup on design
of the new symbols of FBiH. The deciion on this Workgroup is here.
The minutes
of the government session nr. 188 of 7th February include some
intersting quotes - namely the government expects the parliament
to give them the new design of the symbols to be able to start
the procedure for the new legislation on it, however, ths issue
was commented by the prime-minister Hadžipašic:
"The ping-pong between the government and the parliament
continues white the legal responsibilty for the enforcement of
the decisions of the Constitutional court lays on the
prime-minister."
Željko Heimer, 24 June 2007
The competition for the design of the Coat of Arms and
the flag of the Federation was issed, as mentioned on <www.parlamentfbih.gov.ba>.
Željko Heimer, 3 December 2007
Final proposals for a new flag
images by Adi Mirojevic', 13 March 2008
Final proposals for a new coat of arms
.gif)
.gif)
.gif)
images by Adi Mirojevic', 13 March 2008
According to Adi Mirojevic', the commission for selection of
the proposals for the new symbols of the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina has decided on three proposals winning the
competition, yesterday evening. They apparently published three
winning proposals for the coat of arms and three for the flag.
Željko Heimer, 13 March 2008
As is published on 26 February 2008 at <www.javno.com>
following the news agency Fena, the commission to judge the
proposals was formed by members from both houses of the Federal
parliament. There were 118 proposals received on the concourse.
The commission decided on 3+3 proposals. The commission was
headed by Ismet Osmanovic', who told the journalists that the
chosen 3+3 proposals are in accordance with the requirement of
the concourse regarding the constitutivity of all three peoples
of B&H. He also said that from 118 proposals, 93 were
matching that criteria. The commission first decided on 16 coat
of arms and 15 flag proposals that they preferred, and on its 25
Feb session, they downgraded that to the remaining 3+3. The
commission shall have at least one more session on which they are
going to decide weather they are going to ask for
"improvals" by the designers and eventually they shall
put forward to the Parliament single coat of arms and single flag
proposal for decision. He was not willing to speculate how long
it may be until the Federation gets the new symbols.
One may find a photo of the design proposals at <www.islambosna.ba>.
As you may see there are some artistic differences from what Adi
sent us. As per question on the flag staff position these
proposals assume no doubt the usual position of the staff on the
viewer's left - i.e. the yellow triangle in one of the proposals
in considered to be in the fly.
Regarding the coat of arms proposal nr. 1 (above on the left-
it's identified as B on the photo), from the photo, I would guess
that these coloured wedges actually represent roofs, the black
billets are windows and the entire coat of arms represent a
tightly packed willage of three houses - different roofs standing
for different nations - living together.
Željko Heimer, 14 March 2008
According to Znamierowski [zna99]
(P. 155) the Croat-Muslim Federation should be called:
Bosniak-Croat Federation; "Red stands for the Croats, green
for the Bosniak people and white for purity and peace."
Officially Bosnian (with n) is any inhabitant of
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bosniak (with k) is that part of the
population formerly known as Muslim.
Marcus Schmoger, 30 July 2000
Bosniak-Croat Federation is not official name and never was
(nither Croat-Muslim Federation, nor anything similar) - it is
just a "description" or "explanation" of the
easily confuzing and misleading name of that part of the state
that is officially called "Federacija Bosna i
Hercegovina" i.e. Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Željko Heimer, 30 July 2000
It is not Federacija Bosna i Hercegovina, but Federacija Bosne
i Hercegovine, using the genitive case, just to show that it is
indeed a geographical federation between Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Muhamed Mesic, 7 November 2001
I just checked <www.fbih.gov.ba>
- the government of FBiH site, that confirms the name as Muhamed
suggested - it is clear on several places (including the
Constitution available on the site in three languages) - so it
should be "Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine". However,
this explanantion is not correct (though gramattically it could
be interpreted that way, certainly). However, the Federation is
the federation of 10 cantons and not of two countries, one called
Bosnia and the other Herzegovina.
Željko Heimer, 9 November 2001
The flag was finaly adopted on 5 November 1996.
Green on the flag and golden fleur-de-lys on green shield on the
arms stand for Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) and red on the flag and
chequy shield for Bosnian Croats. The ten golden stars on blue,
it is said to represent the 10 regions (velezupa, pl. velezupe;
with hachek over z) of the Federation.
Before the adoption of the flag, there were three flags hoisted
in the sessions of the Parlament of Federation - the flag of
Bosnia-Herzegovina (white whith arms), the flag of Bosian Muslims (green-white-green 1:2:1
with crescent), and the flag of the Croatian
Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia (i.e. the flag of Bosnian Croats,
red-white-blue with chequy arms).
Željko Heimer, 8 December 1996
I had a chance to take a good look on the (quite new and ugly)
flag of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (that is, Muslim and
Croat entity). I have already reported on it, and posted some
images, but now I can confirm some things that were doubtful. The
flag that I saw was on TV interview with the defence minister of
the Federation, so I guess, as official as it should be.
The shield in the middle is bordered in gold (yellow) all around,
as well as the border between the upper white part and lower blue
part. Similarly, the shield with the fleur de lys is bordered in
gold (but with a bit thinner line). The field of this shield is
green (sometimes reported as blue). The other shield (Croatian
chequy) is not bordered with gold, but with a red line (and is
really of a different shape than the shield with fleur-de-lis).
The stars in the lower blue part are white (not golden as
reported before), and there are 10 sixpointed stars. The position
of the stars is an interesting point. The uppermost star is
rotated 90 degrees to what one is used to think of a sixpointed
star (i.e. Magen David). So, it is pointing left to right, not
up-down. The other stars are rotated accordingly to be in the
same position towards the middle of the circle. Hope that this
description makes some sense.
I must say that this detail looks rather unusual and could be a
good starting point for the making of a serious flag. I hope
someone will notice it.
Željko Heimer, 8 February 1997
Today I visited Jos Poels, and he just received a letter from the embassy of Bosnia-Herzegovina in The Hague the day before yesterday. It included a black/white image and the following text:
Mark Sensen, 8 February 1997
Concering 'Pavillons nationaux et marques distinctives' [pay00], (Fig. 2. Cro.-Bos.
Federation) to my best knowlage the "silver" fields in
the Croatian chequy shield could (should) be white. However, I
have not received any official images of this flag yet.
Željko Heimer, 9 January 2001
B&H review i.e. page BO 2.1 in Album 2000 [pay00]:
Bosnia and Herzegovina Federation - (CSW/--- 1:2) Regarding the
name, I believe that the official documents use name
"Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina" in Englsh
instead. Anyway, I agree with usage marks (though cf. on the sea
usage I said at the BA page). Regarding the ratio, the
consturction details given in Album 2000 ((1+2+1):2) and some
minor details of the CoA I can finally determined say that it's
wrong. I have finally found some documents providing the details
of this flag. I leave the sources and in detailed analysis for an
other message, telling here only that the flag ratio is
prescribed 3:5, the stripes are in proportion 1+3+1 (i.e. white
pannel is three times wider then each of the red and green
stripes). Also, that make the white panel square. The CoA is
apparently width of equal to half the flag hoist. Yellow is
called "golden-yellow" and is then probably darker the
the yellow used in B&H flag, the Croatian shield is bordered
red (yellow in Album) and Argent squares of the chequy need not
to be silver - they are called simply white in the regulations.
Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
Znamierowsky 99 [zna99] show wrong
flag - Page 155: Croat-Muslim Federation (officially the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) - The circle of stars is
shown as five-pointed and yellow, instead of six-pointed and
white, while the proportions are correctly illustrated at 3:5 but
given in the text as "2;3".
Christopher Southworth, 19 September 2004
In the issue of the book that I have the stars are correctly
six-pointed, but yellow. Indeed that's wrong. Also the chequy
shield is errorneous since it should be outlined in red, not
yellow. 3:5 is the correct proportion.
Željko Heimer, 19 September 2004
It is very hard to tell, but in my edition (updated 02) they
are five pointed and yellow. Why are they 6 pointed and
white?
I thought that part of the sheild was supposed to represent
Europe/the EU, which would mean five pointed and yellow would be
logical.
David Kendall, 19 September 2004
I have the same Edition as David, and it is extremely
difficult to tell, but even under a powerful glass they still
appear five-pointed as was my original impression. I do
not know why the stars are six-pointed or indeed white, but as
far as I know they (unlike those on the flag of
Bosnia-Herzegovina itself) do not represent the EU or Europe, but
the ten provinces which make up the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina?
Christopher Southworth, 19 September 2004
Interesting, in my edition (which is not an updated one as far
as I can tell) the stars are indeed 6 pointed and yellow. In this
case too magnification was needed to verify the number of points.
Evidently a case where instead of correcting an earlier mistake
the update adds a second one.
Ned Smith, 20 September 2004
image by Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
The construction sheet, in the same units as shown, the size
of the CoA would be 1.65:1.5 (height:width), but as these figures
are not stated in regaultions and would not come nicely on the
image is the numbers are to be whole figure only, I prefer not
to include them..
Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
image by Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
I should note another common practice regarding the flags and
CoA of the Federation. In the reports and interviews with various
govrnment oficials on TV one can often observe a table flag,
usually hoisted with at least one other flag (most often either
the B&H triangle flag, or Croat "HRHB" flag). That
table flag is pure white with the federal CoA set in the middle
rotated for vertical hoisting. One should not that this is not a
flag in a strict sence, as there is no such in any regulations,
but it is rather, I guess, a way of displaying the CoA in a
convinient way, also, maybe a way of avoiding to hoist red stripe
("Croat") over green ("Bosniak") and way of
avoiding questions regarding such. In any case - I have never
seen it used in any other way then a table flag, and I do not
think that it is, either.The CoA there is much larger here then
if it would be if the Federation flag would be hoisted
vertically, and the size of the white field is 1:2, probably to
match the other displayed flags. I believe that such usage should
be noted, as it could easily be confuzed and misreported as a
variation of the Federation flag, which it certainly is not.
Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
fbih.gif)
image by Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
One should note that the two shields in upper part are not of
the same shape (Bosniak is pointed, Croat is semicircular) and
not bordered the same (Bosniak is bordered yellow, Croat - red).
The stars in the lower part are set in circle, 10 sixpointed
stars (composed of "two trangles" each) and are rotated
so that they are "roatationally symetircal". The
topmost (and bottommost) star is so that two points are pointing
in hoizontal direction (3 and 9 o'clock), which is rather unusual
and just opposite of what one would expect. The shiled is
apparently (I say apparently since this is not stated explicitly
in regaulations) set in a rectangle with ratio 11:10.
Also, apparently, as it could be concluded from the images, it
seems that the width of the Coat of Arms is half of the hoist
size.
Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001
Jos Poels showed me a little United Nations handbook for Dutch
soldiers in former Yugoslavia (Handboek voormalig Joegoslavië,
January 1994) showing a flag used by Croatian Bosnians. It's
horizontal reb-white-blue with on the central strip a shield
looking like a combination of Croatia and Bosnia (without
fleur-de-lys).
Mark Sensen, 8 February 1997
Military Aircraft Insignia of the World [c2e98] don't say anything about
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina marking. However, it seems
that the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's planes had the
federation flag as fin flash. See photo at <www.airliners.net>.
Dov Gutterman, 12 June 2004
At <www.insigniamag.com>
there is an article about Bosnian and Croat Federation Air Force.
It show illustrations (one probably based on photo that I report
earlier. The website report that "The Bosnian & Croat
Federation flag is carried on the tail fin with the top edge
parallel to the fin leading edge.
Dov Gutterman, 14 June 2004