Citizens of Kragujevac against new Constitution

More than 300 citizens in Kragujevac, the biggest city in central Serbia, attended public discussion about the new Constitution of Serbia. The event was organized by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights.

Biljana Kovacevic Vuco (Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights), Andrej Nosov and Predrag Madzarevic (YIHR), Ljiljana Palibrk (Helsinki Committee for Human Rights) and Vladimir Paunovic (Millenium) were among the discussants. The political parties was represented by Branislav Lecic and Milena Stankovic (Liberal-Democratic Party), Nenad Canak (League of Social-Democrats of Vojvodina), Mirko Rosic (Civic Alliance of Serbia) and Branislav Kovacevic (coalition “Sumadija”).

The discussants all concluded that the new Constitution should be boycotted because it had been adopted through “murky procedure” and because it contains a number of “semi-solutions which drive Serbia back to the 19th century”. The discussants stressed that “only through the process of dealing with the past and the creation of modern society can Serbia’s future be envisaged as democratic”. The Draft Constitution was estimated to further distance Serbia from Europe, legitimize the crimes committed in the past, excluding the citizens from decision-making processes.