## Facts

- The Arbitration Commission of the Conference on Yugoslavia (the Badinter Commission) was created within the European Community–sponsored Peace Conference on Yugoslavia to provide legal opinions on questions arising from the breakup of the SFRY.
- On November 20, 1991, the Conference chair transmitted a question submitted by the Republic of Serbia to the Commission.
- The question asked whether the Serbian population in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, described as a constituent people of Yugoslavia, had a right to self-determination.
- The opinion issued on January 11, 1992, was advisory and non-binding, delivered in a diplomatic process rather than an adversarial adjudication.
- The Commission had recently stated in a prior opinion that the SFRY was in the process of dissolution, shaping the context for minority and succession questions.

## Issues

1. Whether Serb populations in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina possess a distinct right to self-determination under international law that would justify unilateral separation or border change.
2. Whether, instead of an external self-determination claim, those populations are entitled to minority and human-rights protections within the existing republic boundaries.
3. What obligations Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina owe to members of Serb communities regarding identity, fundamental rights, and nationality in the dissolution context.

## Decision

- The Commission concluded that international law did not clearly define all implications of self-determination, particularly in internal, multi-ethnic settings.
- It rejected the proposition that the Serb populations in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as such, held a separate right of external self-determination to secede or alter borders.
- It held that those populations are entitled to the full set of rights accorded to minorities and ethnic groups under international law, including protections reflected in relevant conference instruments.
- It stated that Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina must secure for members of those minorities all human rights and fundamental freedoms recognized in international law.
- It recognized, where appropriate, a right for individuals to choose their nationality.

## Legal Principles

- International law recognizes self-determination, but its concrete consequences are not exhaustively specified in positive law for intra-state ethnic communities.
- Ethnic, religious, and linguistic groups within a state have a right to recognition of their identity, and states must ensure respect for minority rights.
- Self-determination functions in part as a human-rights safeguard, supporting an individual’s ability to choose affiliation with an ethnic, religious, or linguistic community and to obtain the related legal consequences.
- In state dissolution and succession contexts, minority protections and individual rights (including nationality choice where applicable) are the primary legal guarantees for such communities, rather than a generalized entitlement to unilateral territorial separation.

## Conclusion

The Commission treated Serb communities in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as minorities and ethnic groups entitled to robust international-law protections, while denying that those groups possessed an independent right to secede or redraw borders based on self-determination.


Conference on Yugoslavia Arbitration Commission (Badinter Commission) Op. No. 2, 31 I.L.M. 1497 (1992)