The evaluation of the return process of refugees and internally displaced persons back to their "home of origin". The case of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Abstract

This thesis argues that the return of refugees and internally displaced persons back to their “home of origin” although it was a right legitimized through the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the war, was a very complex and demanding task. The return implies that people will be confronted with new circumstances. They will face the integration in a society that has nothing in common with the pre war society. Everything has changed. Return, however, is not an end in itself but it has to be sustainable. There is no meaning in returning “home”, if people cannot build a new and sustainable life. The difficult task is to find the normality of life, which existed before the war. Through this paper we are trying to evaluate the success of the return process. Although success is difficulty measured, the key variables that influence sustainability will be examined. Surely, the achievement of sustainability is not an easy task; there are a lot of parameters. Sixteen years have passed, since the end of the war and the Peace Agreements, and still we talk about the refugees issue in Bosnia Herzegovina.