The provision of the Constitution of Serbia doesn’t give the right to Serbia to impact the census in other countries. Serbia also can’t influence inhabitants of a certain country how they’re going to declare themselves in the census, primarily referring to their national, i.e. ethnic representation, a renowned Belgrade lawyer, Mr Vlatko Sekulović, told Pobjeda daily.
“Improvement of relations between Serbs abroad and their home country doesn’t mean that the state of Serbia has the right to launch campaigns in other countries thus trying to affect the population declaration in the census on any matter, with reference to religion, nationality, sexual orientation. Moreover, if any state were to conduct a campaign aimed at affecting the declaration of the inhabitants of another state during the census, it would mean direct challenging of the sovereignty of another state,” Mr Sekulović points out.
He assesses that the supreme power on the territory of a specific state belongs to inhabitants and nationals of that state, and the same applies during census,.
Article 13
Mr Aleksandar Raković, a historian and one of the ideologues of the new Greater Serbia project “Serbian World”, said that according to the Constitution, Serbia has the right to interfere in the census in Montenegro.
He recalled the provisions of Article 13 stipulating that “Serbia protects the rights and interests of its nationals abroad”.
“The Republic of Serbia develops and improves relations of Serbs who live abroad with their home country,” Article 13 of the Constitution of Serbia suggests.
However, lawyer Sekulović has told Pobjeda daily that the aforementioned second paragraph doesn’t not refer to a specific individual, that is, it doesn’t represent a basis for establishing international rights and obligations between the state and its national, but it’s rather a political declaration that has no concrete limitation defined by other legal acts, contrary to paragraph 1 of this Article. As a matter of fact, it represents an expression of desire to preserve the identity of a member of the Serbian people in the diaspora.
According to him, there’s a legitimate interest that the Republic of Serbia develops and bolsters economic and cultural relations between the diaspora and a home country.
Biserko: The census in Montenegro should be postponed
President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Ms Sonja Biserko, has said that the census in Montenegro should be postponed for a while, as the new government prepares amendments to the Nationality Law because of it.
“Amendments to the Nationality Law in Montenegro should be stopped, as tensions have been running high in Montenegro recently,” Ms Biserko told Pobjeda daily.
According to her, Serbia’s government is misusing the Constitution of Serbia.
Still, Montenegro has enough potential, she adds, to resist the new aggression of Serbia.
