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Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine

Last modified: 2009-10-02 by dov gutterman
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[Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina]
image by Željko Heimer, 18 March 2001



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Cantons

Municipalities


See also:


New Flag for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina ?

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

The Proposals

Final proposals for a new flag






images by Adi Mirojevic', 13 March 2008

Final proposals for a new coat of arms






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


The Federation Name

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


Adopted Flag

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:

The coat of arms is a shield shape wich has on its left side the shield with the goldenyellow flower on the green background, on the right side the Croatian historical coat of arms with 25 white and red squares and 10 white stars in circle on the blue. The coat of arms and the blue field are outlined with a goldenyellow line.

The flag is red, white and green, with the coat of arms in the middle.

The coat of arms contains the symbols of Bosniac people on the left side, and of Croatian people on the right side, and of federal units - cantons.

The flag has a field with the colours red, white and green. Green symbolises Bosniac people, red symbolises Croatian people. White symbolises purity and excels the value of the coat of arms.

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

Wrong Flag at Znamierowsky 99

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


Construction Sheet


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


Table Flag


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


Coat of Arms


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


Flag used by the Bosnian Croats

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


Aircraft Marking

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