Deliberating Reconciliation: A National Citizens’ Assembly on Dealing with the Past in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Citizens’ assemblies have been used to address difficult policy questions and constitutional change, as well as more routine issues, including in challenging and post-conflict contexts. At the same time, various forms of deliberation have played an important role in interpersonal reconciliation. However, policy-shaping deliberative instruments have so far not been applied to inform reconciliation policy in post-conflict settings. This paper examines the first national citizens’ assembly on reconciliation, held in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2026. Thirty years after the end of the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina still lacks institutionalized policies aimed at reconciliation and dealing with the past. Meanwhile, an entire generation has grown up exposed to divergent narratives of the conflict, responsibility, and victimhood. Drawing on pre- and post-assembly surveys and pre- and post-interviews with participants, this paper assesses the impact of deliberation on individual attitudes. This analysis is complemented by process tracing and interviews with decision-makers to examine whether and how deliberation contributed to the initiation of reconciliation-focused policies under conditions of persistent political gridlock. The findings contribute to broader debates on the capacity of deliberative processes to engage with traumatic pasts, including questions of memorialization and reconciliation policy.