Movement for Civic Bosnia and Herzegovina Supports Mostar Declaration

(Patria) - The Movement for Civic Bosnia and Herzegovina, at a meeting held on March 5, 2026, unanimously supported the Mostar Declaration, a document that reaffirms the fundamental democratic principles on which a sovereign and independent Bosnia and Herzegovina is based.

Starting from the historical fact that the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina plebiscitarily declared themselves in favor of a "sovereign and independent Bosnia and Herzegovina, a state of equal citizens, the peoples of BiH – Muslims, Serbs, Croats, and members of other nations living in it" in the 1992 Referendum on Independence, the Movement for Civic Bosnia and Herzegovina emphasizes that the essence of the referendum decision is clear: Bosnia and Herzegovina is a state of equal citizens, in which the identities of the peoples are recognized and protected, but sovereignty belongs to the state and its citizens, it was stated in the Movement's press release.

They add that over the past three decades, a political narrative has been developed that has often misinterpreted the citizens' referendum will, attempting to replace the concept of a civic state with a model of ethnic sovereignty and ethno-territorial division.

"The Mostar Declaration represents a clear response to such tendencies, reminding that sovereignty belongs to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens, not to collective ethnic structures or territorialized identities. The Declaration, signed by Forum Neretva from Mostar, Forum of Youth of Krug 99, and Krug 99, not only speaks about the need for reform of the constitutional and electoral system but also calls for the renewal of the European meaning of key political concepts. In the European democratic understanding, a nation is not an ethnic group but a political community of citizens, the legitimacy of power stems from the will of the citizens, and sovereignty belongs to the state and all its citizens," the Movement points out.

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The Movement for Civic Bosnia and Herzegovina particularly supports the principles of the Mostar Declaration that affirm:

• the right of every citizen to elect and be elected to all public offices in the state,
• the obligation to implement the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights as the foundation of the rule of law,
• the rejection of the narrative of "legitimate representation of peoples" which denies
democratic representation of citizens,
• the building of a functional, democratic, and European state based on the equality of all citizens.

"The Mostar Declaration is both a political and a value act – an affirmation of civic equality as the foundation of constitutional democracy. It rejects stabilocracy without democracy and ethnocracy in which the collective dominates the individual, and advocates for an institutional model of the state based on freedoms, equality, and responsible institutions.

The Movement for Civic Bosnia and Herzegovina considers the reaffirmation of the democratic referendum will of the citizens from 1992 to be key to the future of the state. Bosnia and Herzegovina must be a functional, democratic, and European state – a community of equal and free citizens. The Mostar Declaration offers an important conceptual map for exiting the ethno-political order towards constitutional democracy and European political culture. Precisely for this reason, the Movement for Civic Bosnia and Herzegovina gives its full support to this document and its principles," the press release states.