The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights is appalled at the manner in which the authorities are planning on imposing a new constitution upon Serbia. Unfortunately, all parliamentary political parties are willing to vote for the new constitution for a single albeit dubious national reason – to include a declaration on Kosovo’s status in the Preamble to the Constitution. If that is the sole reason, as topmost leaders, notably the Prime Minister, have been reiterating every day, then we do not need a new constitution. The current one already mentions Kosovo and Metohija as an integral part of Serbia.Serbia needs a new legal and political framework for other, truly national and democratic interests. We need a democratic, modern, pro-European constitution, that will mark a decisive discontinuity with Serbia’s undemocratic past. Such a past and the conduct of the politicians who ruled at the time are the very reason for Kosovo’s current status. There is no doubt that a hasty adoption of a new constitution for one-off political use would merely demonstrate that this country has not made much progress in democratising itself and that its political elites do not understand either the needs or the future of the country they are leading.
There is not much to say about the provisions in the new constitution as no one apart from a small circle of political party representatives has any idea of what the draft contains. The draft text, the BCHR will comment the quality of human rights guarantees it enshrines when it sees the draft text. For now, it can merely note that the very idea of human rights, notably the right of citizens to take part in community affairs, has been grossly violated. In the circumstances, the statement in the Preamble – that “the citizens are adopting the Constitution of Serbia” – appears cynical.
We had hoped that political parties, the only participants in the process of coordinating the text of the constitution, would realise that this manner of drafting a constitution was ridiculous and erroneous, not least because it violates constitutional procedure. The BCHR calls on all state authorities and political parties to behave responsibly and invite all those, who are willing and able to help Serbia get a contemporary and democratic constitution, to join in the process.
