The central event marking January 9 as the “Day of the Republika Srpska” will be held today in Banja Luka, despite the fact that the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared this date unconstitutional in judgments from 2015 and 2019.
As the high representative in BiH, Christian Schmidt, said yesterday, celebrating the unconstitutional RS Day is a criminal offense.
The US Embassy in BiH announced the celebration of the unconstitutional day of the RS, saying, among other things, that the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has repeatedly ruled that the celebration of the Day of the RS on January 9 is unconstitutional.
– This decision applies regardless of who participates in the celebration. It is not just the celebration of the holiday, but specifically the selection of January 9, which coincides with an Orthodox religious holiday and violates several provisions of the BiH Constitution that prohibit discrimination. This decision is based on the law, not on opinion – the Embassy stated.
It is planned that the ceremonial parade will be held at Trg Krajine in Banja Luka.
Disputed date
Let us remind you that on November 26, 2015, the highest judicial institution in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, determined that January 9, as the Day of the RS, is unconstitutional, following the appeal of the then member of the BiH Presidency, Bakir Izetbegović.
In its decision, the court contested January 9 as the date, and not the celebration of RS Day as a holiday.
The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina did not dispute the right of the faithful to celebrate the baptism of St. Stephen, as well as the Day of the Republic of Serbia, but it determined that the Day of the Republic of Serbia cannot be January 9.
On September 25, 2016, the Referendum Implementation Commission conducted the January 9 referendum, although the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina prohibited its holding. The court then annulled the results of the citizens’ declaration.
Soon, the National Assembly of the RS (NSRS) removed the Law on the Day of the RS from the Law on Holidays and adopted it as a special secular holiday. The request for the evaluation of the constitutionality of that law was submitted by nine delegates, Bosniaks and Croats, to the Council of Peoples of the RS.
Canceled part of the article of the Law
On March 29, 2019, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina again declared January 9 unconstitutional, i.e. annulled the part of the article of the Law on the Day of the RS that reads “based on the confirmed will of the citizens of the RS, January 9 is established as the Day of the Republic”.
The contested provision reads as follows:
“‘On the basis of the confirmed will of the citizens of the RS, January 9 is established as Republic Day, it is not in accordance with Article I/2. of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Article II/4. of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina in connection with Article 1.1. and Article 2.a) and) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and Article VI/5. of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. “
Position of the Venice Commission
The decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina was preceded by the position of the Venice Commission, which marked RS Day as “discriminatory, because it is not in accordance with the universal values of dialogue, tolerance and understanding”.
As stated, “it is based on historical events that are significant and important for only one people in the RS, that is, for the Serbian people.”
Let us remind you that on January 9, 1992 in Sarajevo, the then Assembly of the Serbian People in Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the “Declaration on the Proclamation of the Republic of the Serbian People of Bosnia and Herzegovina” – in the areas of “Serbian autonomous regions and areas and other Serbian ethnic entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina , and on the basis of the plebiscite held on November 9 and 10, 1991, in which the Serbian people declared in favor of remaining in the common state of Yugoslavia”.
The first leadership consisted of Radovan Karadžić, Biljana Plavšić and Momčilo Krajišnik, who were later convicted at the Hague Tribunal for war crimes.
Source: Avaz
