SVESRPSKI SABOR 2024. GODINE: PODRIVANJE VLADAVINE PRAVA U BOSNI I HERCEGOVINI
ALL-SERBIAN ASSEMBLY 2024: UNDERMINING THE RULE OF LAW IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Author(s): Harun Išerić
Subject(s): Constitutional Law, Governance, Political history, Social history, Geopolitics, Administrative Law
Published by: Institut za istraživanje zločina protiv čovječnosti i međunarodnog prava Univerziteta u Sarajevu
Keywords: Pan-Serbian Assembly; Declaration of the Pan-Serbian Assembly; Republika Srpska; special parallel relations; Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina; rule of law;
Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the constitutional and legal implications of the PanSerbian Assembly held in Belgrade in 2024, with particular emphasis on the Declaration on the Protection of National and Political Rights and the Common Future of the Serbian People and the ancillary acts adopted for its implementation, for the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Considering the constitutional framework of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the analysis assesses the legal nature of the Declaration and considers whether it may be qualified as an expression of “special parallel relations” between the entity of Republika Srpska and the Republic of Serbia within the meaning of Article III(2)(a) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The paper further evaluates whether such relations, as articulated and operationalized through the Declaration, comply with constitutional standards relating to the protection of the BiH state sovereignty and territorial integrity, the principle of the constitutent peoples, the prohibition of discrimination, the duty of entity loyalty to the state, and the binding force of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The paper subsequently analyzes the legislative, institutional, and practical consequences arising from the implementation of the Declaration, including the harmonization of the legal framework of Republika Srpska with that of the Republic of Serbia, the establishment of various joint bodies, the designation of joint holidays, and the creation of memorial institutions. It argues that these measures are inherently discriminatory insofar as they place one constituent people – the Serbian people—in a privileged position, and that they constitute a systemic deviation by the Republika Srpska from the constitutional principle of loyalty to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The paper ultimately concludes that the Declaration and the measures adopted for its implementation pose a serious threat to the rule of law and the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Moreover, they undermine the authority of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and represent an attempt to re-establish mono-ethnic exclusivity in the governance of Republika Srpska – an approach that has been unequivocally declared unconstitutional in the established jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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