The Croatian National Assembly () is a political organisation of Croat political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The organisation serves as a platform to coordinate political and cultural activities of different parties and stakeholders in the Croatian community and to promote the initiative to create a federal unit with Croatian majority ("Third entity") in the country.

History

In 2000, the Office of the High Representative in the country imposed amendments to the

Federation A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

entity's constitution and its electoral law. Dissatisfied Croat politicians led by Ante Jelavić and HDZ set up a separate Croatian National Assembly on 28 October in Novi Travnik, held a referendum parallel to the

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

and proclaimed Croat self-rule in a federal unit in Croat-majority areas in the Federation (''Hrvatska samouprava'' - "Third entity"). The attempt ended shortly after a crackdown by SFOR and judiciary proceedings. In 2010–14 Federation's Government was formed and Federation's

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

appointed without the consent of Croat deputies in the House of Peoples, receiving just 5 votes of confidence out of 17. In March 2011 country's

Central Election Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

declared HoP's composition and decisions to be illegal, but the High Representative Valentin Inzko suspended CEC's decision. After Croatian politician Božo Ljubić filed an appeal, finally, in December 2016

Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Ustavni sud Bosne i Hercegovine, Уставни суд Босне и Херцеговине) is the interpreter and guardian of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It ...

found the election system of the deputies in the House of Peoples unconstitutional and abrogated the controversial rules. Croatian National Assembly was thus reactivated in April 2011 in Mostar and started pushing for the reorganization of country and Federation, the change of the electoral system and a public broadcasting system in Croatian, focused on Bosnian Croats.

Political positions

Dissatisfied with the representation of Croats in the

, Croat political parties insist on creating a Croat-majority federal unit instead of several

cantons A canton is a type of administrative division of a country. In general, cantons are relatively small in terms of area and population when compared with other administrative divisions such as counties, departments, or provinces. Internationally, th ...

. SDA and other Bosniak parties strongly oppose this. In the 2014 Bosnia elections, most of the parties participating in the CNA formed a joint electoral coalition to contest the entity and state parliamentary elections as well as the elections for the Croat member of the state presidency. They won 14 out of 17 Croat seats in the House of Peoples in Federation's Parliament and 4 out of 5 Croat seats in the State House of Peoples, together with 19 seats in Federation's and 14 in State House of Representatives, respectively. In January 2017, Croatian National Assembly stated that “if Bosnia and Herzegovina wants to become self-sustainable, then it is necessary to have an administrative-territorial reorganization, which would include a federal unit with a Croatian majority. It remains the permanent aspiration of the Croatian people of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

Structure

Flag of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia

The HNS has a 29-member Presidency, headed by Dragan Čović. HNS's 14-member General Secretariat is chaired by Božo Ljubić as the president, while Secretary-general is Josip Merdžo. The members of the General Secretariat are heads of HNS Departments. Presidency and General Secretariat are main bodies of HNS between its assembly sessions. The HNS has twelve departments. The members of HNS BiH are all Croats who are elected *deputies in cantonal assemblies in the Federation, *deputies in the

Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina The Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Parlament Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine, Парламент Федерације Босне и Херцеговине, separator=" / "), often called Federal Parliament ...

, *mayors of cities, towns and municipalities, *deputies in the

Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina The Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Parlamentarna skupština Bosne i Hercegovine, Парламентарна скупштина Босне и Херцеговине, separator=" / ") is the bicameral legislative ...

, *cabinet ministers in the Federation,

Republika Srpska Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, ; also referred to as the Republic of Srpska or Serb Republic) is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other bein ...

or in the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Members

Political parties supporting the work of Croatian National Assembly and whose members participate in its operations are:Članice
hnsbih.org *

Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina The Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (, HDZ BiH) is a Christian democracy, Christian democratic Croatian nationalism, Croatian nationalist List of political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina, political party in Bosnia and He ...

(HDZ BiH) *

Croatian Democratic Union 1990 The Croatian Democratic Union 1990 (, abbreviated HDZ 1990) is a political party of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It split from the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is led by Ilija Cvitanović. In 2006, it was the lea ...

(HDZ 1990) * Croatian National Shift (HNP) * Croatian Republican Party (HRS) *

Croatian Party of Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina The Croatian Party of Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( or HSP BiH) is an extra-parliamentary party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The party was established in 2004 as a splinter of the Croatian Party of Rights established in 1991, under the name Cr ...

(HSP BiH) * Croatian Peasant Party of Stjepan Radić (HSS SR) * Croatian Peasant Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HSS BiH) * Croatian Movement (HKDU-HRAST) * Croatian Party of Rights Dr. Ante Starčević of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HSP AS) * Croatian Christian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HKDU BiH) *

Croatian Democratic Union The Croatian Democratic Union (, , HDZ) is a major conservative, centre-right political party in Croatia. Since 2016, it has been the ruling political party in Croatia under the incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. It is one of the ...

(HDU) * Croatian Independent List (HNL) * Croatian List for Livno (HLL) * Čapljina Independent Party - Čapljina in Heart

References

Sources