As Republika Srpska marks the 35th anniversary of its National Assembly, it commemorates a historic moment when the Serb people in BiH broke a political deadlock, rejected the humiliation of their constitutional status and transformed their sovereign will into an institutional and state-building reality, President of Republika Srpska Siniša Karan has said.
“The establishment of the Assembly of the Serb People in BiH was a historic act of self-defense, a constitutional response to being outvoted and an expression of the political will of a constituent people who, faced with threats to their existence, political position, identity and national character, decided to take their future into their own hands,” Karan emphasized in an opinion column for the Republika Srpska News Agency, Srna.
He stressed that the right to self-determination is not an outdated concept for the Serb people.
“It is our past, our present and our constitutional future. Those who do not understand this understand neither law nor history, and least of all the Serb people and Republika Srpska,” Karan stated.
Srna published the president’s column in full.
A right that is not requested, but exercised
The right of peoples to self-determination is an inalienable, natural right recognized by numerous international instruments.
Among the earliest such documents was the resolution of the London Congress of 1896, while the United Nations Charter of 1945 formally recognized the principle of self-determination.
In 1976, the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council adopted a covenant on economic, social, political and other rights, whose first article establishes the right of peoples to self-determination.
Even the 1974 Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia explicitly recognized the right of every people to self-determination in its Basic Principles, confirming the importance of this right within the constitutional order of the former common state.
The Serb people affirmed this right through their founding acts, incorporated it into the foundations of Republika Srpska and secured its legal basis through the institutions of Republika Srpska.
An indelible and undeniable legal and political sequence began on October 24, 1991, with the establishment of the Assembly of the Serb People as an institutional response to illegal actions and attempts to exclude Serbs from the constitutional order of the then Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The process continued in November of the same year with a plebiscite of the Serb people, representing the most direct form of popular and political expression regarding their decision to remain in a common state.
On January 9, 1992, the adoption of the Declaration Proclaiming the Republic of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina marked the birth of our state.
Its constitutional and legal system was completed with the adoption of the Constitution and Constitutional Law on February 28, while its final and recognizable name was established by the Declaration of August 12, 1992: Republika Srpska.
The Dayton Peace Agreement of 1995 merely verified an already existing statehood, because Republika Srpska had functioned as a state with full capacities between 1992 and 1995.
In other words, Republika Srpska entered the Dayton negotiations as an established and functioning state, with its own Constitution, territory, population, and legislative, executive and judicial authorities.
The Dayton Peace Agreement provided Republika Srpska with international legal recognition and placed it within the constitutional framework of the complex state union of BiH, as one of its two equal entities.
National Assembly: A fortress of Serb freedom
The National Assembly of Republika Srpska, established as an expression of the sovereignty and will of the people, is one of the fundamental pillars of Serb statehood in BiH.
It is the institution through which the will of the people is transformed into the most important legal acts protecting the rights and interests of the Serb people.
Its significance therefore extends far beyond the conventional role of a parliament, as it also serves as a guardian of the constitutional order of both Republika Srpska and BiH.
In 1991, the Serb people chose the path of freedom, political self-determination and institutional organization.
The strong and decisive messages, together with the historic acts adopted by the National Assembly over the past decades, demonstrate its continued commitment to that path.
Despite numerous pressures, challenges and repeated attempts to strip it of its powers and weaken its position, the National Assembly of Republika Srpska remains what it was on October 24, 1991: a fortress of Serb freedom and an unwavering stronghold defending the rights, dignity and survival of the Serb people.
Source: RTRS
