Bosnia and Herzegovina: Democratic Resilience

Baroness Mobarik Excerpts

Tuesday 25th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

We talk to our allies in Europe about EUFOR, which is vital in maintaining peace and stability. We work with it, examining how we can support it further and make sure that we maintain our closeness to it, because it is vital to keeping the peace that we have been able to stick to for 30 years now.

[Baroness Mobarik (Con)]

My Lords, having travelled to Bosnia shortly after Dayton, I saw the devastation for myself and was asked to witness the uncovering of a mass grave. I therefore know where hateful rhetoric and weakened institutions can lead. Today, Bosnia’s resilience is threatened by not only disinformation and external influence operations but a quiet hollowing out of its future as young people leave in large numbers. In this fragile setting, the lifting of US sanctions on Mr Dodik risks sending the wrong signal to those who challenge Bosnia’s constitutional order. Will the Minister say how His Majesty’s Government intend to help strengthen Bosnia’s democratic resilience, especially with other international institutions, and how we can help to stem the flow of young people who are leaving Bosnia?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for reminding us of the need for Dayton and the horrific events that took place not so long ago, between 1992 and 1995. It is vital that, as a signatory to Dayton, we continue to maintain our support for the principles, institutions and positions that were agreed at the end of that process. As for the movement of people and the decisions made by young people in the western Balkans more generally—she mentioned Bosnia specifically—there are many drivers for this. We seek to understand them as fully as we can because, as she says, it is not great for a society that is still recovering from the after-effects of that devastating conflict to lose so many of its young people.