General Framework Agreement Day in 2025

When is General Framework Agreement Day?

General Framework Agreement Day is a regional public holiday in the Republika Srpska on November 21st each year. Republika Srpska is one of the two confederal entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This holiday marks the Dayton Peace Agreement of 1995 which brought the Bosnian War to an end.

History of General Framework Agreement Day

The breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991 created new nations from several of the former Yugoslav republics. It also brought ethnic differences to the forefront and these manifested themselves in Bosnia's complicated demographic structure where large parts of the country split along Bosniak and Serbian lines.

And although the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina was recognised by the international community of April 6th 1992, a day later the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Republika Srpska) declared its independence, triggering the Bosnian War.

This most uncivil of civil wars raged until late 1995 with both sides locked in a military stalemate. With over 100,000 dead and over 2 million people displaced, it is the most devastating conflict to have taken place on European soil since the end of the second world war.

The war was brought to an end after the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (also known as the Dayton Agreement or the Dayton Accords).

The warring parties agreed to peace and to a single sovereign state known as Bosnia and Herzegovina composed of two parts, the largely Serb-populated Republika Srpska and the Croat-Bosniak Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After having been initiated in Dayton, Ohio, on November 21st 1995 at the end of a three-week conference, the full and formal agreement was signed in Paris on December 14th 1995.