Cantons of the Federation of Bosnia
and Herzegovina
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegov-
ina, one of the two political entities of Bosnia
and Herzegovina (the other being the Repub-
lika Srpska) has ten cantons or counties as
the second-level units of local autonomy.
They are called kantoni in Bosnian (singular
Kanton), counties or županije
in Croatian
(sing. županija), and кантони in Serbian
(sing. кантон).
The other political entity of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, the Republika Srpska, has a
centralized government and is divided dir-
ectly into 63 municipalities. The seven re-
gions
in which these municipalities are
grouped have no governmental authority in
terms of legislation or judiciary or even local
self-management. Finally, the ethnically di-
verse Brčko District is a division of its own
under the direct jurisdiction of Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
Cantons
The Federation (of cantons or counties) of
Bosnia and Herzegovina was created by the
Bosniak-Croat Washington Agreement of
1994. Their present boundaries were defined
by the Dayton Agreement in 1995. The can-
tons or counties consist of municipalities (sin-
gular: općina,
општина; plural: općine,
општине).
A canton or a county has its own govern-
ment headed by the Premier. The Premier
has his own cabinet, and is assisted in his du-
ties by various regional ministries, agencies,
and cantonal or county services.
Five of the cantons or counties (Una-Sana,
Tuzla, Zenica-Doboj, Bosnian Podrinje, and
Sarajevo) have a Bosniak majority, three
(Posavina, West Herzegovina, and West Bos-
nia) have Bosnian Croat majority, and two
(Central Bosnia and Herzegovina-Neretva)
are ’ethnically mixed’, meaning there are
special legislative procedures for protection
of the constituent ethnic groups.
The previous name of Canton 10, Herzeg-
Bosnian Canton (in Croatian: Županija Herce-
gbosanska), has been deemed unconstitution-
al, and Kanton 10 is the generally used name,
despite of that ruling, the local authorities
use the name which the local legislature
passed.
Language Note: Bo