THE 1992 CONSTITUTION - KEY STEP IN BUILDING SERBIAN STATEHOOD IN BiH

PALE, FEBRUARY 24 /SRNA/ - The adoption of the Constitution in 1992 was a key step in building Serbian statehood in BiH, and it also laid the foundations of the institutional continuity of Republika Srpska, Georgije Vulić, a senior research associate at the Institute of Historical Sciences, University of Istočno Sarajevo, told SRNA.

“It should be borne in mind that this Constitution, with certain amendments, is still in force today, which testifies to the continuity of the existence of Republika Srpska since 1992, and not since the Dayton Agreement, as this issue is viewed today in the Bosniak public and in historiography,” Vulić emphasized. Vulić explained that the first Constitution of Republika Srpska defined the Serbian Republic of BiH as a state of the Serb people and other citizens living within it, and that its foundation was the idea of the Serb people’s right to self-determination and to political organization under the conditions of the disintegration of the common state. He added that the key provisions related to the proclamation of Republika Srpska as a distinct political and territorial entity, the establishment of its own governing institutions, the possibility of entering into alliances with other states, and the guarantee of citizens’ rights and freedoms, in line with the constitutional models of the time. Vulić assessed that the historical significance of the Constitution is also reflected in the fact that it laid the foundations of the institutional continuity of Republika Srpska, which would later, based on the Dayton Peace Agreement, receive international recognition as one of the two entities in BiH. He emphasized that the adoption of this Constitution represented a key step in the then process of building Serb statehood in BiH, noting that it also stipulated that the Serbian Republic of BiH was part of Yugoslavia. It should be borne in mind, he added, that remaining within Yugoslavia was at the time the primary aspiration of the Serb political leadership in BiH. He reminded that this Constitution was drafted and adopted amid the accelerated disintegration of Yugoslavia, a deep constitutional crisis in BiH, and pronounced political polarization among the three constituent peoples. Previously, he said, Serb political representatives in BiH had formed the Assembly of the Serb People of BiH in this Yugoslav republic. “Its formation came about as a result of the outvoting of Serb MPs by their Muslim and Croat colleagues in the joint assembly, especially on the issue of remaining in Yugoslavia, which was the goal of the Serb political leaders of that time,” Vulić said. According to him, the Constitution of Republika Srpska was adopted at a moment when preparations for the referendum on the independence of BiH were already intensifying, a referendum opposed by Serb political representatives. In that environment, he assessed, the Serb leadership sought to institutionalize its own political subjectivity and to secure a constitutional framework for the protection of the collective rights of a people whose political representatives had repeatedly been outvoted up to that point. Vulić assessed that this act was an expression of the political will of the Serb population and a means of its institutional consolidation, and that historians do not interpret it in isolation, but rather in the context of the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the weakening of the federal legal order, and interethnic tensions. The first Constitution of Republika Srpska was proclaimed on February 28, 1992, and is one of the most significant constitutive acts that laid the foundations for the creation of Republika Srpska.