Softić files appeal to Constitutional Court over "language of the Bosniak people"

Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina Safet Softić submitted today to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina an initiative for the review of constitutionality of Article 7, paragraph 1, first sentence of the Constitution of Republika Srpska in the part concerning the words: „language of the Bosniak people“, reports the Patria news agency.

- We believe that this constitutional, normative determination in the RS Constitution of the official Bosnian language violates numerous rights under the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, both of the Bosniak people and members of „Others“ who have opted to speak Bosnian as their mother tongue, and that the existing system also represents discrimination of collective and individual rights.

Accordingly, we believe that the esteemed Constitutional Court of BiH should declare the first sentence of Article 7, paragraph 1 of the RS Constitution in the part reading „language of the Bosniak people“ unconstitutional, and order the National Assembly of RS to immediately, and no later than within 3 months from the date of publication of this decision in the „Official Gazette of BiH“, amend and supplement this norm so that the RS Constitution, instead of the words „language of the Bosniak people“ guarantees the Bosnian language without connotation to „Bosniak people“, states the announcement from the Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina Safet Softić.