Bosnia and Herzegovina’s flag—adopted on 4 February 1998—shows a golden right triangle on a blue field with a diagonal line of seven white five‑pointed stars and two half‑stars along the hypotenuse. Imposed by the High Representative after local parties failed to agree, the design signals neutrality and European orientation: the triangle is read as the three constituent peoples and the territory’s form; the stars suggest Europe and continuity. Protocol is set by state law for government display and international use, while entity flags are used in regional contexts.
The present flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina entered into force on 4 February 1998, during the post‑Dayton period of internationally supervised state‑building. The country’s leaders, representing Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs, could not agree on a common symbol to replace the wartime lily flag. The High Representative, Carlos Westendorp, therefore imposed a design intended to communicate neutrality, statehood, and a European horizon rather than ethnic particularism.
The composition places a golden (yellow) right triangle at the fly on a deep blue field. Arrayed along the hypotenuse is a series of white five‑pointed stars—seven full stars plus two half‑stars cropped by the flag’s edges—implying an unending sequence. Public interpretations commonly identify the triangle’s three points with the three constituent peoples and its general outline with the cartographic form of the country. The stars, echoing the European iconography familiar from the EU flag, are meant to suggest Bosnia and Herzegovina’s European belonging and an open future; the colour scheme similarly draws on European blue and a bright heraldic gold.
Historically, the Socialist Republic within Yugoslavia (1945–1992) used a republican flag that integrated the federal palette and a red star. After independence was declared in 1992, a white flag with a blue shield bearing six golden lilies (the medieval Kotromanić arms) became the state flag during the war years. The lilies carried strong associations for some but proved divisive; under the Dayton Peace Agreement (1995), a new, ethnically neutral design was sought and ultimately imposed.
Legal provisions specify proportions (most commonly 1:2), colour coordinates, and use. The state flag must fly on the Presidency building, the Parliamentary Assembly, the Council of Ministers, courts, and diplomatic missions; it appears at international sporting events and alongside the flags of international organizations. Within the country, the two entities—the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska—use their own symbols in regional contexts, but state institutions are obliged to display the national flag. Desecration or improper use is an offence, and ceremonial protocols govern hoisting, half‑masting, and retirement of worn flags.
The design has remained unchanged since 1998. While it lacks a single historical emblem that commands universal affection, its deliberate abstraction makes it serviceable in a complex constitutional environment. By avoiding explicit ethnic heraldry and instead invoking Europe and plurality, the flag functions as a pragmatic emblem of a multi‑ethnic state emerging from conflict, committed—at least aspirationally—to neutrality, rule of law, and continental integration.