Exactly 26 years ago, Bosnia’s wartime President Alija Izetbegovic, Croatia’s Franjo Tudjman and Yugoslavia’s Slobodan Milosevic put their initials on the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the 1992-1995 war in the country.

“This is not a just peace, but it is more just than a continuation of the war. In this situation, and in this world as it is, a better peace could not have been reached,” Izetbegovic said following the ceremony of the signing of this Agreement on December 14, 1995, in the Palace of Versailles in Paris.

The Agreement was initialled by the three leaders earlier, following a three-week peace conference at the Wright-Patterson Airforce Base in Dayton, Ohio.

While it brought about a system that may not be as functional as those in place in other countries, it ended the bloodshed that had gripped Bosnia in 1992 when the Yugoslav wars spread into the country and resulted in massacres, concentration camps and even genocide.

The Agreement consists of 11 Annexes, including Annex 4 – the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It affirmed the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state. It stipulates that Bosnia consists of two entities, the FBiH and the RS and that it is made up of constituent peoples, Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs, along with others. The competencies of the State and the entities were also prescribed, as well as the relations between the institutions of the State, as well as the manner of amending the Constitution.