Constitution doesn't draw borders
Continuing the program of establishing alternative dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, in cooperation with Heinrich Bell Stiftung, organized a public debate in Belgrade today, the October 18th, entitled "Kosovo and Serbia – The Day After".
However, deligates could not avoid the issue of the draft constitution. Goran Miletic from the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights suggested that, compared to Serbia's supreme legal document, Kosovo's Constitutional Framework is more successful in regulating human rights issues. The Serbian Constitution places human rights below the minimum, while the equality of sexual minorities is not even mentioned, says Miletic.
Zorica Trifunovic, a representative of the Quaker Peace and Social Witness, noted that "gradjanke" (female citizens) are never mentioned in the Constitution – only "grajdani" (masculine noun, plural). Trifunovic says Article 63 of the Draft Constitution is rather unclear, because it could be interpreted as allowing each member of the society to decide whether every child born in Serbia should, or should not, be born.
Jelena Bjelica, editor-in-chief of "Gradjanski glasnik", a Serbian language magazine published in Prishtina, suggests that "rather than focusing on a civic Serbia, the Constitution focuses on a territorial Serbia", denying the Albanians the right to self-determination. "Better Serbia does not mean Kosovo within Serbia", concludes Bjelica.
Sasa Gajin, from the Center for Advancement of Legal Studies, stressed that the Constitution narrows the level of human rights in Serbia.
Maja Stojanovic from the Youth Initiative for Human Rights said: "Even Slobodan Milosevic would allow Albanians to vote at the referendum".
An insulting legal document
On October 17th a public discussion event was organized in Nis about the referendum on the Draft Constitution. The event was organized by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights and Center for Civic Resources Development in cooperation with LDP and GSS Nis-branches.
More than a hundred citizens of Nis attended the event, although it had been relocated, at literally the last moment, from the initially designated Law School premises to the Municipal Hall. The Law School Dean assessed the event to have been of political nature as insisted it be moved. Marko Velickovic and Aleskandar Kekenj spoke about the referendum boycott on behalf of non-governmental organizations, while Sima Radulovic and Misa Bojovic spoke on behalf of GSS and LDP, respectively.
Among other things, Velickovic said: "No one can correct this Draft Constitution until the referendum is over…. Through this Constitution, 242 Serbian MPs told us that they see us as their subjects. The narrative about the Constitution is, again, a narrative about patriotism and mythology, just like it used to be in 1989, when the Constitution, which later became a catalyst of war in the former Yugoslavia, had been adopted. A democratic Constitution is passed with intent to respond to the demands of the 21st century, rather than to respond to questions about Lazar's curse or Milos's oaths. This Constitution is backward and insulting for anyone who tends to see himself or herself as a free citizen of an open political community wanting to continue to live in the future," said Velickovic.
Constitution doesn't draw borders
"The referendum, which is to be held in October 2006, will not really be a referendum on the Constitution, but a referendum on Kosovo", writes Dusan Pavlovic, a professor at the Belgrade Faculty of Political Science, who reminds: "When, in June 1990 Milosevic, claimed it necessary to validate the Constitution at the referendum, and then to announce the first multi-party elections, he also claimed this order to be essential for the defense of Kosovo".
Pavlovic adds: "The new Constitution, whose Preamble underlines that Kosovo will remain within Serbia, is founded on the Serbian delegation’s [at Kosovo status negations] belief that negotiations about Kosovo's final status may eventually yield a solution according to which Kosovo would remain within Serbia. Everything is wrong about this kind of reasoning – everything, from the beginning to the end. A Constitution does not define state borders. Today's Serbian elite does not much differ from Milosevic's elite, which only means that the symbolic break with Milosevic's era will never really happen", says Pavlovic.
However, deligates could not avoid the issue of the draft constitution. Goran Miletic from the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights suggested that, compared to Serbia's supreme legal document, Kosovo's Constitutional Framework is more successful in regulating human rights issues. The Serbian Constitution places human rights below the minimum, while the equality of sexual minorities is not even mentioned, says Miletic.
Zorica Trifunovic, a representative of the Quaker Peace and Social Witness, noted that "gradjanke" (female citizens) are never mentioned in the Constitution – only "grajdani" (masculine noun, plural). Trifunovic says Article 63 of the Draft Constitution is rather unclear, because it could be interpreted as allowing each member of the society to decide whether every child born in Serbia should, or should not, be born.
Jelena Bjelica, editor-in-chief of "Gradjanski glasnik", a Serbian language magazine published in Prishtina, suggests that "rather than focusing on a civic Serbia, the Constitution focuses on a territorial Serbia", denying the Albanians the right to self-determination. "Better Serbia does not mean Kosovo within Serbia", concludes Bjelica.
Sasa Gajin, from the Center for Advancement of Legal Studies, stressed that the Constitution narrows the level of human rights in Serbia.
Maja Stojanovic from the Youth Initiative for Human Rights said: "Even Slobodan Milosevic would allow Albanians to vote at the referendum".
An insulting legal document
On October 17th a public discussion event was organized in Nis about the referendum on the Draft Constitution. The event was organized by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights and Center for Civic Resources Development in cooperation with LDP and GSS Nis-branches.
More than a hundred citizens of Nis attended the event, although it had been relocated, at literally the last moment, from the initially designated Law School premises to the Municipal Hall. The Law School Dean assessed the event to have been of political nature as insisted it be moved. Marko Velickovic and Aleskandar Kekenj spoke about the referendum boycott on behalf of non-governmental organizations, while Sima Radulovic and Misa Bojovic spoke on behalf of GSS and LDP, respectively.
Among other things, Velickovic said: "No one can correct this Draft Constitution until the referendum is over…. Through this Constitution, 242 Serbian MPs told us that they see us as their subjects. The narrative about the Constitution is, again, a narrative about patriotism and mythology, just like it used to be in 1989, when the Constitution, which later became a catalyst of war in the former Yugoslavia, had been adopted. A democratic Constitution is passed with intent to respond to the demands of the 21st century, rather than to respond to questions about Lazar's curse or Milos's oaths. This Constitution is backward and insulting for anyone who tends to see himself or herself as a free citizen of an open political community wanting to continue to live in the future," said Velickovic.
Constitution doesn't draw borders
"The referendum, which is to be held in October 2006, will not really be a referendum on the Constitution, but a referendum on Kosovo", writes Dusan Pavlovic, a professor at the Belgrade Faculty of Political Science, who reminds: "When, in June 1990 Milosevic, claimed it necessary to validate the Constitution at the referendum, and then to announce the first multi-party elections, he also claimed this order to be essential for the defense of Kosovo".
Pavlovic adds: "The new Constitution, whose Preamble underlines that Kosovo will remain within Serbia, is founded on the Serbian delegation’s [at Kosovo status negations] belief that negotiations about Kosovo's final status may eventually yield a solution according to which Kosovo would remain within Serbia. Everything is wrong about this kind of reasoning – everything, from the beginning to the end. A Constitution does not define state borders. Today's Serbian elite does not much differ from Milosevic's elite, which only means that the symbolic break with Milosevic's era will never really happen", says Pavlovic.
posted by SERBIA IS WAKING UP at 10:45 AM
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